Kept in Storage
by grovyrosegirl
Summary: (Discontinued, To Be Rewritten) A trip back into the Portal Network turns into a nightmare when a being unlike any other is released and seeks to cause havoc everywhere. Yet it seems there's more to this story than Jesse and friends realize...
1. Young Builders

**Author's Note: Hiya everyone! Wow it's been a while since I've posted anything. But I decided to do some writing for one of my obsessions- *cough* I mean one of my favorite games. I hope you enjoy this story, thanks for reading!**

 **Just** **a small disclaimer, this story will contain spoilers for all the episodes, so I'd recommend turning back now if you don't wish to be spoiled. Other than that, I hope you enjoy! Thank you for reading.**

* * *

 _A cool air came over the young architect as he stumbled out from the portal back into the hallway. The hall itself was never cold per se, but compared to the world he had just been to? You could call this place a snow biome. The young man let out a cough and a small cloud of ash exited his body. It didn't phase him much as he happily pulled out a journal with a feather quill, opening the book to his most recent page. He was thankful that none of the paper was scorched on his latest adventure. The builder tapped the tip of his quill on his bearded chin as he began to think. What would he name this world? The redhead glanced over his shoulder at the portal he had exited from, its frame of Netherrack and the bright orange portal only seemed to bring back the feeling of intense heat from the lake of fire he had narrowly escaped._

 _Fire World? No, too simple._

 _The Fire Lake Dimension? Too long._

 _Flame Land? Too short._

 _The Inferno Ocean World?_

 _ **Perfect.**_

 _He grinned as he scribbled the genius name at the top of the page covered in notes he had taken while in that world. For one thing, apparently that Netherrack block burns forever._

 _"Now, where to next?" The architect pondered aloud, closing his journal as he began to pace around the hallway. How long had it been since he first came across this hall? Days? Weeks? Months? Time seemed to fly so fast here. He had already filled two journals up with his notes on the various worlds, normal and strange alike, and was already halfway through the third. True, he had experienced some close calls on his journeys, but that didn't stop him. This adventure of excitement, looking through every cranny and nook to find something new everyday, it was unlike anything one had witnessed before! Much more fulfilling than his old life, constantly building small cube-shaped houses out of the same old oak wood every single day. Now, his pockets were stuffed with materials he hadn't even heard of before. His eyes always seemed to gleam as he imagined all the things he could build with what he found. All thanks to his luck on that fateful day, the day he had been mining for coal and stumbled upon a lit up portal, then wandering in the hall until he had spotted a small object lying on the floor. It was a flint and steel, but it was unlike any other. This flint and steel was glowing a bright red, even a small flick of it could make a tower of blazing red flames. Of course, the best part was the object's ability to activate any portal he found. The question of why somebody would leave such an amazing tool lying on the floor of this empty hallway had popped up in his mind, but his curiosity had joyfully taken the command position in his head._

 _The man shook his head, what was he doing thinking about that? He had another portal to pick. Hopefully the next one wouldn't be as...hazardous as the Inferno Ocean World (He praised himself again for that brilliant name) had been. His dark eyes began to drift towards a blue portal with a frame made out of lapis. He grinned and started to step forward, until a sudden sound made him jump. It was a loud, grinding rumble, the sound of stone being dragged against something. The builder frantically looked around when he saw the source of the sound. A portal, with a light cyan glow and a frame made out of gold and sea lanterns, was sinking right into the floor! The man slowly turned; that was new._

 _When the portal had completely vanished into the stone floor, it revealed a steep staircase made of quartz steps. He crept forward to get a better look, and he noticed that he couldn't even see the top of wherever those stairs led. Before he could even think of traversing up the newly revealed staircase, he began to hear faint echoes of voices followed by thudding footsteps._

 _"-Grab as much sand as you can. These walls will need to be at least forty blocks high." The voice of a man ordered, much confidence and sternness in his tone._

 _"We **know** , heard it the first twenty times," came the voice of a woman, it was calm, yet a small hint of irritation could be heard._

 _Another man's voice piped in, his was much more gentle and enthusiastic than the other man's voice, "I must say, I'm enjoying coming up with these games. They make me almost want to try them out for myself."_

 _"Really Otto," scoffed the voice of a different woman, "don't take too much offense to this, but you're not exactly the sporty type."_

 _"And you **are** , Mevia?" questioned yet another woman's voice with a mocking tone._

 _The builder felt panic sucking away his breath. This had been the first time he had even caught a glimpse of people in the hallway. At that moment, he realized that his secret adventure hallway wasn't as abandoned as he once thought. And if there were people here, odds were that they wouldn't take kindly to a stranger wandering around this place. He gripped the red-glowing flint and steel tightly as he tried to force himself to pick a portal to hide in. The builder's conscious screamed at him to run now, but his trembling legs were planted to the ground. It was too late anyway, the bickering voices and footsteps only grew louder as five figures came down the steps._

 _The first to notice him was a man wearing a purple suit covering a yellow buttoned blouse with a white ruffle. He had red hair, almost the same shade as the builder's own hair, that was combed neatly in a suave fashion. His eyes now widening at the builder were covered by grey glasses._

 _"What do we have here?" He said, placing gloved hands at his sides._

 _"Hadrian, what are you going on about-," muttered a woman who stopped next to him, pausing when she saw the sight as well. She had bright cyan hair that passed her shoulders, and wore a long red and black dress. A smile then curved on her lips. The builder couldn't tell if he should feel relief or even more panic with it. Soon she spoke in a seemingly mocking tone, "My, my, lookie here! A wittle lost traveller."_

 _The builder gulped. Why weren't his legs cooperating with him? The sinking feeling in his gut was telling him that The Inferno Ocean Wor—oh forget it, he was calling it Fire World—would be safer than this place. Three more people came down the steps, all with suspicious glances that turned into surprise when they saw him._

 _A man wearing green and yellow robes rose an eyebrow at him, "Well, that's certainly something you don't see everyday."_

 _"Aha!" suddenly a girl with blood-red hair and green eyes covered with glasses exclaimed. "See? I told you all that someone swiped my flint and steel!"_

 _"Cassie," interjected a woman wearing a yellow jumpsuit-like dress with a brown hood, her black braided hair poking out of the hood, "we literally have fortresses full of those things."_

 _The builder's eyes darted down to the glowing red flint and steel still clenched tightly in his grip. His heart skipped a beat when it clicked in his mind. **That** was who would leave such an amazing tool lying on the floor._

 _"Still, I don't like **thieves**." Cassie retorted._

 _The girl wasted no time, as she seemed to materialize an enchanted diamond axe with a simple flick of her wrist, a bloodthirsty grin growing as she slowly stepped downwards toward him. He was prepared to turn and take off into the first portal he was closest to, until the dark-haired woman swiftly grabbed her by the back of Cassie's shirt and pulled her back. The axe-wielding girl glared and seemed to mutter words the builder would rather not repeat._

 _She shook her head, "Cool it, Cassie."_

 _Despite his would-be attacker being restrained, the builder wasn't taking anymore chances as he lightly tossed the flint and steel on the floor right by the bottom step, "Here! Y-You may have it back, I apologize for taking it! I simply found it on the floor when I came here, I swear I had no knowledge that it belonged to you-,"_

 _"Quit the yapping," The man known as Hadrian cut him off. "You're off the hook this time. Just keep in mind that we don't take stealing kindly, bucko."_

 _"Next time, we might send the gladiators after you," taunted who he assumed was the one called Mevia, "and you wouldn't want that, would you?"_

 _The builder gulped._

 _The woman who had practically saved his life from a horrible death just a few moments ago released Cassie and said as she stepped down, "Would you all stop? He's just scared."_

 _As the much less scary woman made her way over, the builder spotted Cassie scooping up the flint and steel and folding her arms, still glaring at him. His attention turned to the dark-haired woman as she placed a hand on his shoulder and gave a calm smile._

 _"Sorry about my friends, we don't get too many travelers in the Network often, and well, they **love** picking on new people. Don't let them get to you." She tried to assure him. Though that didn't stop his trembling. The woman quickly tried to lighten the mood again as she took her hand off his shoulder, "You can call me, Harper. Pleasure to meet you."_

 _"Ah, yes, thank you," the builder stuttered, calming slightly at Harper's more friendly demeanor. "Again, terribly sorry for taking that flint and steel. If I had known, I would've returned it right away."_

 _"Oh stop worrying about that," Harper laughed, "no harm done."_

 _"Speak for yourself," muttered Cassie. Harper shot an annoyed glare at her before rolling her eyes and turning back to him._

 _"Although, if you don't mind me asking," She began, "Cassie's been complaining about that flint and steel for about three months now. How long have you been using our Portal Network for exactly?"_

 _His fingers fiddled as began to explain, "Well, I never really kept track of the days...b-but it has been a while since I found that portal. Ah...here!"_

 _The builder pulled out his first completed journal, turning it over so that Harper could see the cover, "You see I've been documenting my travels, writing down notes on the things I've found."_

 _"May I see it?" the man in the green robes spoke up, his eyes seemed to be wide with intrigue._

 _The builder glanced at Harper with a look that read 'he-won't-burn-it-right?' all over it._

 _She nodded, "Relax, you can trust Otto. He loves his reading."_

 _Hesitantly, the builder handed over his journal to the curious man. Otto began flipping through the pages, a small grin came to his face._

 _As the friendly man began to flip through his journal more, he gave a small chuckle, "These are...interesting names you gave these worlds. 'Deep Blue Paradise', 'Mushroom Country', 'Gold City'..."_

 _The builder anxiously stood still, glancing back at Harper who gave an encouraging smile. However he heard some snickers come from the other three strangers._

 _"Fascinating, I had no idea there was a quartz cavern in that world with all the islands!" Otto said in awe when he paused on a certain page. The mention of the quartz suddenly peaked the interest of Hadrian and Mevia, who moved slightly closer to catch a glimpse of his journal. Cassie stayed back, leaning against the wall as she rolled her eyes._

 _The builder began to smile back as he replied, "Y-Yes! It was enormous, turns out you have to dig underground on the smallest island to find it."_

 _"Incredible," Otto said, shutting the journal and handing it back to the journal, "if it's not too much of a bother, I would certainly love to hear more about your travels."_

 _"So would I," Hadrian suddenly spoke up, a sudden smile on his face, "seems you've seen some very fascinating things. Care to share?"_

 _The builder found relief in this shift of mood as he answered, "Well...I do have two more journals of my journeys."_

 _"Wonderful," Hadrian said, moving next to him and giving the builder a pat on the back as if they were old friends, "why don't you come up to our palace and you can go into more detail?"_

 _"What?" deadpanned Cassie._

 _Hadrian knitted his brows at her, this caused the girl to drop her confidence for a split moment and glance away, staring down at the floor._

 _"Now," he continued, the friendly face returning, "you must be starving, correct? We'll have the chefs prepare one heck of a dinner."_

 _The builder let all of his doubt drop at the promise of food. Sure he always grabbed anything edible he could find in the many worlds he had journeyed to, but he had been eating mostly apples and mushrooms for weeks now, to eat something that was cooked would be a wonderful change of pace. His growling stomach seemed to agree._

 _The builder nodded excitedly, "Of course, thank you very much! I'll tell as much as I can."_

 _"Glad to hear it," Hadrian said as began to lead the builder back up the steps. The others soon followed behind. As they walked up higher and higher, the world only seemed to become more impressive to the builder as he glanced around at the magenta starry sky and floating quartz blocks._

 _Harper soon caught up, walking next to the builder as she asked, "So new guy, I don't think we ever caught your name."_

 _He beamed, grinning ear to ear, "Soren."_


	2. Flint and Nerves of Steel

Now that Jesse thought about it, she hadn't built anything for fun in a long time. That's not to say she didn't build, oh no, she had helped built new homes, bridges, the New Order of the Stone's Hall, a dirt tower to get back to Sky City, the list went on. Yet the last time Jesse could remember building something _fun_ was back in BoomTown, when she had made her tower out of pink wool in the shape of a pig. Even then, it was still a race against time thanks to the Wither Storm and that poor tower got blown to smithereens.

That's why when Lukas had arrived at the Order Hall four days ago asking if anyone wanted to help out on a new build of his, Jesse had been the first to volunteer. She had even found a space for them to build, a flat grassy field just a few miles from the Hall. The structure, going by Lukas' blueprints, would be a fountain. The fountain would have a base made out of quartz and prismarine bricks, in the center would be a sculpture of a tree with real oak wood where the water would flow out but the "leaves" would be constructed out of green clay, and finally placed on the other top would be a beacon to light it up. So far the two had completed the base and were now constructing the tree sculpture for the center. Jesse was at the top layer, placing down some wood blocks in a three by three pattern. Lukas on the other hand was at the crafting table they had set up nearby, adding some green dye to the clay blocks. Once he set the clay blocks around a cactus green dye, he watched with a small grin as they centered together before becoming yet another green dyed clay block with a puff of smoke. He swiftly grabbed it and placed it in his inventory before turning his head to look up at Jesse, his smile growing bigger at the sight of her placing the last wooden block down. The girl looked down and returned the grin.

"Nice," he called up to her, "we're halfway done. Wanna take a quick break?"

Jesse nodded and hopped down from the wooden tower, brushing some dirt off her Star Shield armor. She then took a seat on one of the quartz blocks that made up the base where Lukas soon joined next to her. After some digging around in his inventory, the blonde pulled out some chocolate chip cookies.

"Want one?" He asked, offering the second in his hand.

"Thanks," Jesse replied with a nod, happily taking the cookie and munching on it with large bites. She could now wholeheartedly agree that her friend had improved in his baking skills. She thought back to some of Lukas' previous batches of cookies many months ago. Some he had forgotten to add sugar, another batch he had accidentally left the shells of the cocoa beans in the batter, and there were multiple times where he had burned the edges. After many taste-tests from Jesse and Axel gone wrong, Lukas had begun to read any recipe book he could get his hands on. Nowadays, having something that Lukas baked was a blessing during times of snack-craving. Cookies he had nailed down, though cakes were still a work in progress.

"So I talked to Petra," she continued, finishing the last of her cookie, "and she said she'd help get a Nether Star for the beacon."

Lukas nodded, "Awesome. Oh, speaking of which, I'm getting kind of worried that the beacon won't be enough to keep the fountain lit up."

He rose from his seat and stepped backwards, looking up and pointing to the top of their in-progress build, "See, the beacon will probably keep the top the lit up, but the base might get overshadowed."

Jesse looked over her shoulder to get a better glance at the fountain's base, releasing a small hm as she contemplated a solution to the issue. She then stood up as well, placing her chin in her hand.

"We could put torches on the base corners," She suggested.

Lukas folded his arms, his gaze locked onto the fountain, "That might work, but I dunno, torches might not match well with the quartz. Plus, someone might burn themselves if they lean against it."

"Good point," Jesse said. She placed her hands at her hips until an idea sparked in her head. Her green eyes lit up and she snapped her fingers, "Oh! How about this, instead of torches, we put sea lanterns on the corners?"

Lukas rose an eyebrow, pondering her suggestion while examining the base. His questioning look shifted into enthusiasm as he grinned and looked back at Jesse, "Yeah! That'll look good with the quartz and it won't be too distracting."

Before Jesse could respond, the young builder suddenly added, "And- _And_ once we put the clay on, we could put some glowstone on the corners of the clay. And then in the center-,"

"-We'll put the beacon! Perfect!" The ravenette finished cheerfully. The two exchanged excited smiles as they raised their arms and high-fived each other.

It was odd in a way, if someone had talked to Jesse nearly a year ago, the idea of her and Lukas collaborating like this wouldn't have even crossed her mind. Heck, she probably would've pretended to vomit at the idea. It felt like so long ago when they were just small townies living in their treehouses or wooden cabins out in the woods. She could hardly remember the feeling of the only large priority in her life being a yearly building competition followed by a convention.

A convention...

Wait a second.

Jesse blinked.

What was this fountain for again…?

The universe had this funny way of answering Jesse's questions, as not even a moment later Lukas said, "Can't wait to see how it looks in the city."

Ah. Right.

Not everyone had settled in the New Order of the Stone's town. While most of the Wither Storm survivors were more than happy to settle down in a new spot and start over, others were more hesitant. Some groups had gone off to see if there was anything left of their former homes, others went out searching for missing friends and loved ones, and larger groups of people had decided to rebuild in different locations. If one traveled around their world, they may find a small village scattered here and there, but there were only four larger towns and major cities that were known. First of course was their own town, Stoneville, where many people who had nowhere else to go had settled. Then came New BoomTown, Magnus' rebuilt kingdom. Reconstruction there hadn't been too difficult, seeing how its citizens ended up blowing up most of it afterwards. Redstonia had remained mostly untouched, though with Ellegaard gone, there had been some power struggles. Luckily Olivia seemed to have helped sort out the reconstruction there, and Calvin eventually took charge. And finally there was the newly built Moog City. It was the largest when it came to population size, and it lied near the center of their world. Gabriel stepped up in much of the construction of the city, despite his shattered reputation. Many people had traveled there in hopes of starting a new life or finding people they had been separated from in the Wither Storm.

With most of the reconstruction complete and the anniversary of the defeat right around the corner, it came as no surprise to anyone that people would want some sort of celebration. Since the former Order of the Stone were revealed as frauds, reorganizing EnderCon was out of the question. The people of this world had new heroes to celebrate, after all. And so, a new convention was organized; Biome Fest. Weird name, sure, but Jesse was just happy they hadn't named it WitherCon. Everyone had agreed on the first Biome Fest being held in Moog City, seeing how it would be big enough and would be easy to travel to. Naturally, the New Order of Stone was invited to appear as honored guests. In about two weeks, they would be traveling to Moog City to make their appearance. People from all over their world were probably ecstatic to see the heroes who defeated the Witherstorm in person. Anyone would be excited.

Well, that is, anyone except Jesse.

"Yeah," She said, forcing a smile on her face, "I'm sure everyone will love it."

The change in her mood didn't go unnoticed, as Lukas' smile faded.

"Alright, what's wrong?" He asked. "Is it something on the fountain?"

Jesse's voice shook as she failed to assure him, "No, no! The fountain's fine. Nothing's wrong, really."

Lukas folded his arms, "Jesse, you're doing that thing again."

"What thing?"

"That thing you do when something's wrong but you don't want to say it."

"What? Am not!"

"Yes you are."

"You're seeing things."

"I think what I'm seeing is that _other_ thing you do when you're lying."

"What other thing?"

"That thing you do with your hair- yeah, _that_ , you're doing it right now."

Jesse paused, realizing that her right index finger was being coiled by the few yellow-highlighted strands of her bangs. Damn it. Of course he noticed. She immediately pulled her hand away, but it was no use to keep up the charade. Lukas was an observer, and when his gut told him something, it wouldn't go down without a fight. Their conversation about Petra's sickness back in The End was one of many examples.

He raised an eyebrow, "So, what's on your mind, buddy?"

Accepting defeat, Jesse sighed, "Just a little...nervous about this whole Biome Fest."

"Oh," Lukas replied, his expression softening, he nervously ran a hand through his hair, "I'm guessing it's not just stage fright, huh?"

"Stage fright? No way, I'm the queen of giving speeches," Jesse attempted to joke, though it didn't phase Lukas, concern was still all over his face. She dropped the smile once more, folding her arms and turned away. She stared in the direction of their town, safely nestled in this valley surrounded by trees, protected by large walls. "People are gonna have questions. They'll start asking, 'Wowie Jesse! What was it like destroying the command block?' or, 'What was the Wither Storm's favorite food?' Answers? It was awful, and the Wither Storm's favorite food was everything."

A gentle breeze ran throughout the grass, lightly lifting some of the strands of Jesse's hair off her back, as the rest of her body was completely unmoving, eyes that were locked on to the town were now focusing on the ground.

She sighed once more, "What am I supposed to do if they ask about **him**?"

How a year could seem to pass by so slowly, Jesse would never know. Nearly one year ago, she had watched her best friend die right in front of her. Since that day, time just seemed to be in slow motion. All of those treasure hunts with the New Order, the reconstruction they had done, the month-long wandering in the Portal Network, and their trips back into said network were jammed pack in one year. And in all of it, Jesse would only miss Reuben more every single day. Soon year two without him would come, and the numbers would just continue to grow. Nothing could ever change that.

Jesse felt Lukas' hand on her shoulder, turning her head she saw the sympathy in those blue eyes of his.

"Hey...listen," He began, "I know the anniversary won't be an easy day. Are you gonna be okay?"

She inhaled a deep breath before letting it out and answering, "Yeah. Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."

"Look, Jesse, no one would blame you if you didn't want to come-,"

Jesse shook her head, "They need me to be there. So many people are still trying to start over after what happened, right now they need their heroes."

"Jesse-," Lukas started to say. Jesse was preparing herself to hear a lecture she was far too used to, those talks about how she needed to take it much easier on herself. She heard it more often than she would've liked.

But the coming debate was cut off when they were interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Hey, Jesse!" Olivia was calling to her. Jesse looked over and spotted the engineer leaning against the wall of one of the open gates that led to back of the Order Hall, "We're done packing, are you coming?"

A memory from earlier this week clicked in her mind. That's right, Olivia and Ivor were heading to Crown Mesa, and invited her to tag along. Well, not exactly. _Olivia_ had been planning to go to Crown Mesa alone to exchange notes with Harper, when Ivor had begged her to take him with her. After days worth of pleading, Olivia had finally given in and said yes. Now as for why Jesse was coming, well, along with himself, Ivor had insisted Jesse come too. Whenever she tried to ask why, Ivor would tell her an excuse along the lines of "It's been a while since you last saw Harper!" or "The more the merrier!" Actually, looking back, this wasn't the first time Ivor had convinced Jesse to come along on trips to visit Harper...

Jesse cupped her hands around her mouth and called back, "Yeah, one sec!"

Olivia nodded and headed back inside, the gate closing behind her.

Jesse turned her attention back to Lukas, frowning she said, "Sorry Lukas, I totally forgot I was leaving today."

Lukas shook his head, seeming to hurriedly drop the previous subject and gave a reassuring smile, "Hey no worries. We're going to need prismarine for the sea lanterns anyway, I'll start collecting some, and then we can get back to work when you guys are back. Sound good?"

She felt relief wash over her as she smiled back and gave a thumbs up, "Thanks man. I'll see you later!"

Jesse immediately started back towards town, silently thanking whatever forces ran their world for perfect timing along the way.

Lukas watched her go, the smile slowly fading. He let out a sigh, before turning his attention to their incomplete build. The universe had let Jesse off the hook this time, but the fountain wouldn't be the _only_ thing they needed to talk about when she came back...

* * *

When Ivor ran off with the enchanted flint and steel along with the Atlas, Jesse was the one who told the others to simply let the excited alchemist hurry off. While she had been right that he would return, that didn't stop the lectures Ivor received from nearly everyone (mostly from Petra and Lukas) when he returned a few days later. To make up for it, Ivor had gone back into the Portal Network to memorize the structure of their world's portal, and he spent an entire week building an exit portal in the basement of their Hall. It definitely made up for his little solo-adventure, as everyone was happy to know that they wouldn't have to travel all the way back to the jungle temple and cut through Sky City's world just to get back to the Portal Network. But of course, that left a new dilemma for the New Order of the Stone; how should they share the items?

After much debate, everyone agreed on a system. Every week, one person got full possession of the Atlas and the enchanted flint and steel, and when the week ended it was up to that person to come up with a game of activity that would decide who got it next. The system seemed to work well, so the group had been using it for months now. This week's game maker had been Axel, who set up a big game of capture of the flag mixed with a snowball fight. Their fierce "battle" had gone on for a while, until Olivia had won when she surprised Jesse and Petra with a dispenser machine filled with snowballs. How the engineer managed to build it without anyone noticing, nobody would ever know. Regardless, she gladly accepted her prize of the Atlas and the flint and steel, even if it came with the cost of Ivor's begging.

Speaking of which, the two were already waiting in the main corridor when Jesse entered.

"At last!" Ivor exclaimed, "Let's not waste anymore time."

Olivia rolled her eyes before looking towards Jesse, "Ready to go?"

"Think so," Jesse replied with a nod. Ivor took her answer as the opportunity to dash off ahead to the basement entrance. Olivia and Jesse exchanged amused glances before trailing behind in the same direction. Jesse took the time to check her inventory one last time. She had her newest enchanted sword (it was rule number one, you _never_ leave home without a sword), a couple of apples, normal flint  & steel, some leftover materials from the fountain build, and some cobblestone. Ready to go.

"Hey guys," Petra greeted when came out of a room and walked past the two in the hallway, "heading out?"

Olivia gave a nod, "If we don't leave now, Ivor might explode."

"Hold down the fort while we're gone?" Jesse piped up.

The redheaded warrior nodded, "Can do. Axel and me were going to check on some stuff in town anyway. Have fun."

Petra continued the opposite direction, Jesse giving a small wave as they parted ways.

The two girls headed down the steps to the basement where the orange portal with the wooden frame stood. Ivor already stood in front of it, seeming to almost bounce happily with excitement.

"Come on now! We shouldn't keep Harper waiting!" He called over his shoulder.

Olivia folded her arms, "Ivor, don't forget, Harper and I are going to be working. Try not to be too...distracting."

"Oh hush Olivia," he argued back, "I'm simply coming along to be ah...hm...moral support!"

"Moral support?" She deadpanned. "Then why did you invite Jesse?"

Jesse folded her arms as well, looking at Ivor with a grin, "Yeah, why did you _really_ invite me to come along?"

The excitement in the alchemist's face shifted as he avoided eye contact and nervously tapped his hands together.

"Well, I figured since I won't be attending Biome Fest, and since the Order Hall will be empty...perhaps it would be a good time to invite Harper to see our world. A nice vacation from her work, and perhaps having Jesse there may increase the chance that Harper will accept. I-It's purely a mathematical and logical conclusion!"

The gears clicked in both Jesse and Olivia. Ivor knew, even with the New Order's word that he was changed, he wouldn't be welcomed at Biome Fest. Since both the New Order and most of town would be leaving, that left him alone in charge of looking over things while they were gone. Most of the time he probably wouldn't mind having the place to himself, but with Harper thrown into the equation…

"Oh I get it," Jesse replied, a suppressed giggle evident in her voice, "you want to ask Harper out on a date and need me to be your wingman."

Ivor's face went red, a glare forming in his expression, "No, no! That is not- I told you, it's a logical conclusion!"

"Oh of course, Ivor," Olivia teased, holding back snickers, "that's a very _intriguing_ conclusion you came to."

Jesse was grinning ear to ear. A small part of her felt a bit bad for teasing him, seeing how flustered it was making him as Ivor struggled to think of a comeback, but it was just too funny. Heck, she'd call it downright adorable.

"Shut up, and get a move on!" Ivor finally shouted, quickly turning and walking through the portal. Jesse and Olivia shared a small laugh, before Olivia have a grin and headed through the portal. Jesse happily followed behind, releasing a few more laughs she was holding back before.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hiya everyone! Thanks again for reading my story. I really appreciate all the feedback I got, and thank you for the kind words! *claps hands together* Anyway, I'm sure some of you might be asking "What about Soren and the Old Builders, what happened there?" Don't worry, _that_ part of the story will be continued, just not for a couple of chapters. So stay tuned! In the meantime, we'll be following Jesse and company for most of the story.**

 **...Hm. Seeing how this is a Minecraft Story Mode fic, I guess I should give a sneak peek of the next chapter like it's done in the game? Welp, here goes nothing.**

 ***clears throat and attempts to do a Billy West impression***

 **"Upon seeing a strange sight in the Portal Hall, our heroes will stumble upon a world of strangeness and memories. Shadows from the past, both friend and foe, will come to confront them once more. What will our heroes do, when they discover a world shattering secret?"**

 ***coughs* Okay yeah, I can't pull off a narrator voice without killing my throat. But joking aside, thanks again for reading! Hope you all are having a great Thanksgiving! See you next chapter!**


	3. He's a Real Fungi

A chilling sensation came over Jesse as she passed through the portal along with the usual tingling one felt in their skin when using a portal. Though she had grown so used to passing through portals that it hardly made her flinch anymore. The only thing that still bothered her when traveling through a portal would have to be the light. For a split moment, all she could see was the color orange, only for it to be shattered when the change to the dim lighting of the Portal Network made her eyes hurt. She blinked a few times to subside the slight irritation as she stepped out into the hallway.

"-Will you drop it already?!" Ivor's voice blasted suddenly, causing an echo to travel.

Jesse spotted him and Olivia already standing in the hall, upon the sight of her entry, the three began to walk down the hall, heading towards the redstone-framed red portal that led to Crown Mesa. Their conversation picked up right where it left off.

"I'm just saying, you could save yourself way less stress if you just told her," Olivia continued.

Ivor shook his head, "How many times must I tell you, there is nothing I need to tell Harper!"

"Oh sure, Ivor," Jesse teased lightly, "that's why you still have that flower."

At that, Ivor's eyes went wide, "How did you-,"

The ravenette chuckled, "Dude, I see you looking at it all the time. It's in your pocket right now, isn't it?"

The alchemist's cheeks began burning as red as the frame of the Crown Mesa portal. Subtly was not a strong suit of the older man, and it was that fact that made for many laughs. But that was enough teasing for now, probably best to ease up a bit.

"Don't worry, Ivor, your wingman is here to help you out," Jesse told him, placing her hands at her hips and lifting her head in a jokingly prideful manner before continuing in a more gentle tone, "But Olivia's right. You should just be honest with her, you'll feel way better if you tell her upfront."

That statement seemed to cause a _snap_ in the alchemist, as he stopped in his walking and spun around to face Jesse, an unamused look on his face as he retorted, "Practice what you preach, Jesse."

Jesse felt her stomach jump a bit at the accusation. There were two outcomes, either Ivor was simply trying to get a little payback or he had seen things that Jesse had hoped nobody noticed. She begged the universe to just be the former, but knowing her luck it was probably both.

"What do you mean?" She finally replied. _Play dumb, play dumb, play dumb!_ Jesse subconsciously repeated that phrase to herself. She caught a glimpse of Olivia, her eyes were now locked onto Jesse, the curiosity seeming to shift as well.

Ivor, on the other hand, was loving this turned table. A giant smirk now present as he said, "Oh you know exactly what I'm talking about. Tell me Jesse, when are you going to tell-,"

 _Stop him!_ Her thoughts screamed.

"Hey, we're dealing with _your_ issues right now," She hurriedly cut him off, a light pink spreading on her cheeks. "Not mine."

"Why Jesse, is there something I should know?" Olivia snickered, folding her arms and looking at her friend.

"Traitor," Jesse groaned. At this, Olivia covered her mouth to hide a laugh while Ivor just continued to smile. Worst of all was the fact that Jesse knew she partly deserved it.

"What's the matter, Jesse?" Ivor continued, a fake sympathy in his voice, "Perhaps you're the one in need of a wingman? Unless of course...you…"

He had oddly trailed off, the enjoyment disappearing from his expression and being replaced by a look of concern. He seemed to be looking past the two girls in front of him. Both Jesse and Olivia stared at him with puzzled looks.

"Ivor?" Jesse questioned, feeling her cheeks cool down, "You still there, buddy?"

"Jesse, look."

She blinked, glancing over her shoulder to see behind her. She couldn't spot anything noteworthy, just the same long hall filled with the multi-colored lights of portals.

"Uh, yeah, empty space." Jesse began to turn her head.

Ivor shot his arm out, pointing to a more specific spot, "No, you fool! Over there!"

She turned head once more, her eyes followed where Ivor was pointing. They led her to a white portal that was a distance away from them. Its frame was made from quartz and a border out of a gold. At first glance it didn't seem like much of a sight, just another portal. But a small detail caught Jesse's eye. The swirling bright white light of the portal was shaking. Almost like it was someone trembling from a cold day. A familiar swishing sound rang from the portal, indicating that it could only mean one thing.

Someone or _something_ was coming out of it.

Jesse turned herself all the way around to get a better look, moving slightly in front of Ivor and Olivia in a defensive stance in case whatever came out wasn't friendly. She kept a hand ready to get her sword from her inventory.

"Do you think someone else is using the Network?" Olivia whispered.

"It's possible," Ivor pointed out. "The Old Builders hid portal keys everywhere. But we've been using these portals for months and we haven't seen a single other person here. Who else do you suppose would use them?"

Jesse glanced back at them, taking out her sword, "We're about to find out, get ready."

The two both gave firm nods as they drew their own means of defense, Ivor, a throwing potion, and Olivia with her enchanted bow and arrow. Jesse turned her attention back to the portal. Part of her was hoping it would be a familiar face, perhaps Dan, Stampy, or Stacy, seeing how the three agreed to share the flint and steel when they last left them. Though the more logical side of her reminded her that the chances of running into them again were slim. That side also suggested that it could be a monster that wandered into an activated portal. The image of a creeper running in and blowing a giant hole in the network formed in her head. She shook the picture from her head, no time to worry about that when she didn't even know what was coming. At the very least, she wished it would be a friendly face.

The swishing sound of the portal suddenly became a louder burst as a figure popped out of the portal. It nearly made Jesse jump. Well, good news first, the figure that came out was no monster, it was undoubtedly a human. Bad news, well no, not _bad_ news per se, more like unexpected news, was that she recognized the person who walked out. Bright red hair and a beard caught her eyes first, then the brown and light orange armor with iron shoulder guards, and a black scarf wrapped cozily around the figure's neck.

Soren the Architect.

Jesse's jaw fell open. There were so many words that could have spilled out at that split moment, but none would come out. All she could do was look back at her two companions, both wide-eyed and sharing the same shocked expressions as her.

Soren didn't seem to be aware of the three, as his back soon turned to them and began walking the other way, humming a tune as he strolled towards a portal diagonal from the one he'd just exited. The portal itself was a bright yellow, the frame being made from mostly gold with the exception of the frame's corners being blocks of redstone. None of the three moved from their spots.

"Sor-!," Ivor exclaimed, breaking the silence as he suddenly ran ahead. But it was too late, the redheaded man had disappeared into the yellow portal, Ivor paused in his running, staring hard at the portal for a good long moment.

Olivia moved forward next to Jesse, sharing another shocked look with her before saying, "Okay, you saw that too, right? I'm not going crazy, right?"

Jesse shook her head, "Not unless I'm going nuts too."

"But how did Soren get here?" Olivia questioned, looking towards the portal. "I thought we had our world's only portal key."

Jesse couldn't find an answer, and she looked ahead. Ivor was still in the same spot, she was unable to see his face as his back was towards them, but she could guess that he wasn't smiling.

"Hey Olivia, get the Atlas out and look up which world that portal leads to," Jesse said, keeping her sights on Ivor.

"On it," Olivia replied, she reached into her inventor, pulled out the gold and blue book, and began flipping through its pages. As she did, a small memory began resurfacing in Jesse's head…

* * *

 _It had been only a few hours after the Wither Storm's defeat. To describe that night in one word...a mess. That night was a big mess. It was a literal mess, in a sense that everything in the surrounding area was still in shambles. But the bigger mess lied in most of the people. Survivors were still emerging from the wreckage of the storm, and others had gone into it searching for those who were still missing. Thankfully most who came out were unharmed, aside from the obvious mental trauma and some were so fatigued that they needed support when walking. More relief came when Ivor arrived with Gabriel, who was happily exclaiming that his memories were back. Despite both Ivor and Magnus insisting that the warrior needed to rest, Gabriel had turned right around and led more rescue groups to find survivors. Seeing how there was no stopping him, the two remaining Order members decided to rest themselves, taking a seat on some stone nearby where Jesse sat with Olivia and Axel, the two had situated themselves on both sides of her. Lukas had helped them move Jesse to a safer spot under a surviving tree and away from most of the crowds. He then told them he and the other Ocelots were heading back to the cave to find Petra, and that he'd be back, glancing with looks of pity at Jesse before heading off._

 _Speaking of messes, that's exactly what Jesse was at the moment. Still clutched tightly in her hands, was the slab of pork that was once Reuben. She hadn't let go of it since picking it up, and all the girl could do was look at it with her watery eyes. Axel was keeping an arm around her. As long as he was there, nothing with bad intentions was getting even a foot near her. Olivia on the other hand, was busy tending a cut that Jesse had gotten her cheek, dabbing it lightly with a wet cloth to clean the dried up blood. Magnus watched them carefully, but Ivor couldn't bring himself to look at the grief stricken trio. The silence between them lasted for a while, before Magnus had finally broken it._

 _"Hey uh...Axel?"_

 _He looked up, "What's up?"_

 _"You guys know where Soren is? We didn't see him anywhere."_

 _Axel looked at Olivia, who could only glare and lower her head when that name was brought up as she still kept tending the cut. He directed his look towards the ground before muttering, "He's not here."_

 _"Wait what? Where-,"_

 _"He ran." Jesse spat out, unfamiliar hatred in her voice. Her sudden statement after all that silence had surprised all of them. She shook her head and repeated softly, "He ran…"_

 _This especially had caught the attention of Ivor. He inhaled loudly, standing up and storming off._

 _"Of course he did," She had heard the older man mutter._

* * *

"Found it," Olivia called out, snapping Jesse from her thoughts. "It says this portal leads to a world with a bunch of islands. Doesn't look like anything too dangerous."

"Good," Ivor stated, "then let's go."

Jesse slightly stepped forward, "You wanna follow him?"

At long last, the alchemist had turned around. His expression completely unreadable as he said, "Yes."

Without even waiting for a response from Jesse, Ivor took off into the yellow portal.

"Guess Harper can wait," Olivia said, placing the Atlas back in her inventory.

"Yeah," Jesse told her, "c'mon, let's hurry before we lose sight of both of them."

With that declaration, the two took off into the same portal. Jesse couldn't blame the alchemist for running ahead; Ivor clearly wanted answers.

They all did.

* * *

Rough landings were to be expected whenever Jesse travelled through a new portal. Back during their portal hopping adventure, she had gotten somewhat used to landing on her back or flat on her face whenever they landed in a new world. This time was no exception, as she let out a small oomph when she fell onto a hard surface. Olivia soon landed a few inches away, grunting as she stood up and rubbed her head from the impact. Standing up and adjusting her eyes to the bright sunlight, Jesse looked downwards to see they were standing in the middle of a long wooden bridge. A deep blue ocean surrounded the structure, and tiny islands made up of simple sand and grass blocks could be seen in the foggy distance. Jesse looked ahead, spotting Ivor a few feet away from them, glancing at the most notable sight ahead where the bridge led to. It was an island, much larger than the ones she had spotted.

The island had a hilly terrain, though there was no grass. All one could see were dirt blocks covered by a grayish-purple surface. Spread about the islands were tall figures, at first Jesse thought they might be trees, but upon a closer look, she noticed the white stems that led to either flat brown spotted tops or large, rounder red tops with white polka dots.

They were _mushrooms_.

Giant mushrooms were a rare sight back home. Jesse remembered always spotting a couple whenever they were in a swamp, but she had never seen so many large ones in one spot. She walked ahead, making her way next to Ivor.

"Any sign of Soren?" She asked lightly.

He shook his head, frowning, he replied in a low voice, "Unfortunately, no. I lost sight of him when we came in."

"He couldn't have gotten far, not exactly too many places to go around here," Jesse attempted to assure him. The alchemist simply nodded in respond, before looking ahead at the island in front of them. His mood seemed to lift at the sight.

"Look at that! A mushroom island!" Ivor suddenly exclaimed, causing Jesse and Olivia to jolt slightly. "Incredible, incredible! I thought they were simply a myth! But look at this!"

"What's that stuff on the ground?" Jesse asked, pointing towards the strange surface of the island ahead.

Ivor took a few steps forward, stopping at where the wooden bridge met the island. He bent down, examining the grayish-purple surface before answering, "Mycelium, it seems. I used to find small patches of it in the swamp. It's a healthy surface for fungi to grow, which I suppose explains all of the giant mushrooms."

"Is it safe? To walk on, I mean." Olivia spoke up, eyeing the island cautiously.

Ivor turned to her, "Oh you'll be fine, it'll be like walking on grass. Although I have heard that it can stick to shoes, a pain to clean off. Tread lightly!"

Although it seemed Ivor couldn't follow his own advice, as he ran ahead onto the mycelium-covered island, scanning the area around him with wide eyes, his usual adventure-seeking grin plastered onto his face. Jesse exchanged a shrug with Olivia before stepping onto the island. She heard a crunch beneath her boots as she walked. Well, Ivor wasn't lying, it was like walking on grass. At the very least it wasn't poisonous. She could worry about cleaning off her boots later. Olivia was treading carefully as she slowly walked onto the island. Once she seemed to be assured that it was safe, her shoulders relaxed.

Jesse decided to do a bit of exploring herself. It wasn't everyday you came across a mushroom island after all. As the girl glanced around, she spotted a small wooden sign stuck into the ground nearby between two large red mushrooms with splotches of white. It read:

WELCOME TO THE MOOSHROOM NATURE RESERVE

CURRENTLY NOT OPEN, APOLOGIES! EXIT PORTAL IS LOCATED ON THE FAR END OF THE ISLAND

"A nature reserve?" Olivia pondered, noticing Jesse staring at the sign. "You think Soren's running it?"

"Well we know someone is," Jesse replied, "But what the heck is a Mooshr- _GAH!_ "

As she had been talking, the two red mushrooms next to the sign had sprung to life and were moving on their own. Jesse jumped a few steps backwards, ready to grab her sword. But upon closer examination, she noticed some things: four legs with hooves, a round body in the center, small horns on the side of a circular head, and a pair of big beady dark eyes. The only oddness came with the color of a mushroom and tiny fungi growing on top of its head. The figure released a long _moo_ sound.

Olivia rose an eyebrow, "They're... _cows_. But with mushrooms?"

The odd creatures stared at the two girls for a moment. One of the cows simply walked off, minding its own business. The other that stayed behind was making full eye contact with Jesse.

Jesse blinked, she watched as the creature's head tilted to the side almost innocently. Its big eyes blinked with curiosity. Jesse slowly reached out her hand, carefully as to not startle the creature, and gave it a small pet on the head.

"Uh hi there," she greeted awkwardly.

The cow, seeming to understand that they were no threat, moved away from Jesse and wandered off, bending down to eat the mycelium that covered the ground.

"Oh!" Jesse grinned, pounding a fist into her other open palm as something clicked in her mind, "Those must be the mooshrooms! _Moo_ shrooms! Because they're mushroom _cows_."

Olivia's eyes widened slightly before she let out a groan and placed her hand on her forehead, "That's the dumbest name I've ever heard."

"More like the _best_ name ever," Jesse declared with a laugh.

"Of course you like it," Olivia sighed. "You love terrible puns."

"Puns make the world go around, Olivia."

"That doesn't even make sense."

"No, but it's funny."

Olivia rolled her eyes but smiled at Jesse. Though it dropped back into a frown when she glanced around the island.

The engineer placed a hand on her hip as she said, "What I don't get is how Soren suddenly disappeared. This island isn't that big, but I don't see him anywhere."

"Maybe he's underwater?"

Olivia simply shot a look at her that read, _'Really?'_

Jesse shrugged, "Just throwing around ideas."

"Then again," Olivia continued, "There might be more to this island than what we're seeing. Maybe some kind of hidden area or a room?"

"Like an underground hideout?"

"Yeah, something like that. Look around for anything like a lever or a button that might activate a door."

Jesse nodded, and the two girls split up. Jesse moved upwards on one of the larger hills of the island. Reaching the top of the hill gave her a better view of the island, as Jesse scanned around. She spotted a portal with the same frame as the one they used to come here standing on a small patch of sand far down the island. Good. That would make heading home after they were done here much more easier. A thought suddenly popped in her head; What would they do if they did find Soren?

Well, the obvious choice first, they'd demand answers. Why did he run? Where had he been? How did he get an enchanted flint and steel? And why the heck were his books everywhere? Actually those last two could probably be one question now that she thought about it- Focus Jesse! She scolded herself.

The main question was, what would they do? Jesse didn't plan on bringing Soren back if he didn't want to come. Frankly, she didn't even care if he never wanted to return. Odds were that people wouldn't be too forgiving if the man who had both lied to everyone about their story and abandoned their heroes in a desperate time suddenly showed up on their doorstep. Sure, not too many people were friendly to Ivor either, considering he caused the Wither Storm to begin with. But there were the select few—Jesse included—who could find it in themselves to forgive him. Why? Because he regretted it. Because he helped them make the weapon that destroyed it. Because he had ran out into danger to help an amnesiac Gabriel. Because he went through great effort to help clean things up and reconstruct what had been destroyed. Because he had saved Jesse's life way too many times to count during their portal adventure. Because his odd antics made her laugh and were sometimes the best way to cheer her up. Ivor tried.

Soren ran.

Maybe Jesse just wanted to punch him and leave when they found him. She couldn't figure it out at this point. Ivor was the one who seemed the most set on finding Soren, so perhaps she would just follow his lead.

"Jesse!"

Jesse let out a small yelp when a loud voice broke her away from her thoughts. Ivor had somehow managed to be right behind her without her hearing him come up the hill. If this occurrence hadn't happened so often, Jesse would've sworn the man had teleportation powers.

"Oh hey Ivor," She greeted, regaining her composure, "find anything?"

The elder man shook his head, "Still no sign of Soren, I'm afraid. Olivia attempted to ask the Atlas to locate him, but it keeps guiding us to the same location." Ivor turned, pointing towards a patch of tall mushrooms gathered on a smaller hill, "Over there. You don't suppose the Atlas is breaking, do you?"

"I doubt it, the Old Builders seemed pretty keen on making stuff that wouldn't break," Jesse pointed out. "I'll check it out."

She hopped down the hill to the patch. The tall mushrooms surrounding her gave a dark, cool shade, where a few of the Mooshrooms were sitting or munching on the mycelium. Jesse grinned, imaging how the others may react when she told them about this place. Axel would probably crack up at the Mooshrooms and their ridiculous pun of a name. Petra would most likely just find it weird. Lukas would want to see it for himself so he could add it to his latest journal. She chuckled, remembering the last time she had been at his house where he had been trying to think of a title for his books. 'Biome Chronicles' was her favorite.

Jesse turned to a Mooshroom nearby and asked jokingly, "You wouldn't have happened to see a guy with orange armor pass by here, would you?"

The Mooshroom simply replied with a moo and wandered off.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." She sighed, returning her attention to the mushrooms. There had to be a reason why the Atlas would point in this direction, right? Something they were missing…something off.

...Wait a minute. Jesse looked around at the mushrooms again. All of them looked exactly alike, tall, large, and with a top of brown or red and white.

And then she spotted a mushroom that seemed very out of place. Its white stem wasn't thin and tall like the others, in fact, it was wide enough to look like a cube. The top was red with white polka dots, but it wasn't covering the stem like the other red ones. The whole thing almost looked like a house.

 _Aha._

Just as the lightbulb went on for Jesse, Olivia and Ivor made their way over.

"Any luck?" Olivia asked.

Jesse grinned and began in a sing-song voice, "One of these things is not like the others…"

Her two companions gave her bewildered looks before she gestured them to follow her over to the large mushroom. Once there, she peeked around the back of it, spotting two iron doors and a lever. Bingo.

"One of these things just doesn't," Jesse pulled the lever, opening the two doors, and finished her small tune with a, "...belong!"

"Excellent work, Jesse!" Ivor cheered. He muttered a small, "Good thing too, I was afraid that the mushrooms were giving off fumes that made you insane."

She rolled her eyes at that comment but led them inside. The floor of the small mushroom-building was a dark oak, no furniture or windows inside. The only source of light was a small glowstone chandelier on the ceiling, lighting up the top of a long staircase that descended into who-knows-where.

Olivia folded her arms, "Stairs. Yeah, definitely Soren."

"At least they're going down this time," Jesse replied. She took the first step downwards, the others following behind as they descended down the steps. The staircase was mercifully much smaller than the towering steps they had once walked on in The End.

Awaiting the three at the bottom was a small corridor. The walls were made from a red clay while the floor was made from dark birch wood, creaking with every step they took. Redstone lamps built into the walls illuminated the place, and white pillars made of quartz were lined up in between the lamps. At the end of the corridor, there was a split. A hallway going left, and a hallway going right.

"So, which way first?" Jesse questioned.

Ivor folded his arms, "Simple solution. Let's split up. I'll go left, you and Olivia go right. If anyone finds Soren, give a shout."

Jesse turned, "Ivor hold up, we don't know how big this place is- Annnd he's already gone." She glanced down the hallway he had raced off into, hearing his footsteps slowly soften as he got farther away from them. Jesse let out a sigh, Ivor's habit of running ahead without warning could be irritating, more times than not it landed him in hot water. Oh well, no stopping him now. She cupped her hands around her mouth and called after him, "If you don't find anything, just meet us back here!"

There was no reply, only a small echo of her voice chased after him. Hopefully he got the message. Jesse turned to Olivia, who gave a questioning look and gestured towards the right hallway.

"Might as well?" She said.

Jesse repeated with a nod, "Might as well."

Olivia headed in first, Jesse speeding up slightly so that they were walking next to each other. While she didn't suspect anything life threatening would pop out at them, she felt much more secure being by her friend's side in case something went wrong.

And knowing their luck, that was highly likely.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Get it? _Get it?_ Fun guy? Fungi? Because mushrooms- Yeah okay, that chapter title pun was terrible, you all can kick me out of the fandom now. Also, HOLY CRAP this chapter got super long. My usual chapters are normally about 2,000-3,000 words long, but I had to make this one longer or else it would mess up the chapter order I've planned out. I guess you could say I had too _MUSH_ ROOM.**

 ***gets hit with a tomato***

 **Hello everyone! Once again thanks for reading, it really means a lot. I apologize for the once/twice a month update schedule, schoolwork makes it very difficult to find time to write. But for the folks who have been super patient with me, thanks so much! I hope I can make a story that'll be worth all the waiting! Anyway, I figured I should reply to some comments I got on the last chapter, so here we go!**

 **Ariza Luca: Aw thank you! I'm glad to hear that, I hope you enjoy the future chapters!**

 **rebekahtpe: Thank you! Haha, totally forgot I published chapter 2 on Thanksgiving, so happy holidays to you as well!**

 **Taigona: Thank you very much! And hehe, I'm glad somebody noticed. I was listening to a lot of the Minecraft Beta and Alpha albums while I was writing this, so I thought it'd be a nice little Easter egg.**

 **ChoyofBonk: Oh gosh, thank you! That's super nice of you to say!**

 **Alrighty, well I guess that wraps it up for now! Thank you all for reading, see you next chapter!**


	4. Building Blocks

Perhaps going off alone wasn't what most would call a rational idea. He had no idea what would be waiting for him in these red-walls twisting hallways. But Ivor didn't care. Soren could be here. That's all that mattered. Maybe he simply wished to find him first, just so he could say things he'd rather not repeat in front of Jesse and Olivia. Or maybe he simply wished to get away from those two. Ugh, the nerve of them, teasing him about Harper. Jesse in particular was more irritating about it, she had been making small jabs about it ever since they'd met Harper. How many times would he have to explain it to them? Ivor found her intriguing. She was an Old Builder (the only one sane enough to leave when the others made those horrible games), she was an incredible engineer, she had much experience, she did this adorable thing where her eyes went big whenever she found a breakthrough in her latest project-

"GAH! No! Enough of that," Ivor muttered, shaking his head fiercely, "It's simply an intrigue. Jesse and Olivia were only trying to get a rise from me. Correct?"

No reply.

Oh right. He was alone. How odd, talking to himself was something Ivor had grown used to over the years. Yet recently, the habit just felt off...ever since he moved in with the New Order that is. Goodness, how was it that it had only been almost a year since the Wither Storm's demise? It felt as if it were ages ago. How had he gotten so readjusted to lively dinners, to teasing among friends, and opening up about personal matters in such a short time? The last time he remembered such pleasures were his adventures with Soren, Magnus, Ellegaard, and Gabriel.

...Now _that_ was a long time ago.

He stopped himself again, "Enough! I have a task ahead of me, there's no time for these ridiculous life evaluations. Save them for the insomnia nights."

The alchemist continued onward, head up and eyes on the prize. Had to find Soren, had to find Soren, had to find Soren.

The narrowing halls finally came to a halt when Ivor arrived at a dark oak door with a golden handle. It was the only door he had seen in these halls. Oh for pete's sake, this was so like Soren, making towering staircases and hallways this long that only lead to _one_ room. Such unnecessary excess. A waste of blocks, if you asked Ivor.

Then again he _did_ build an entire labyrinth in the Far Lands just to guard one tiny house. Hm. Perhaps he wasn't really one to talk…

Ivor gripped the handle tightly, slowly turning it and cracking the door open. He shuffled inside the room softly, attempting to not make any sudden noises besides the creaking of the door. Upon entering the room, he was welcomed by a cozy space. The floor was a soft orange carpet, the light red walls were covered with paintings of plants and gorgeous landscapes, a small bookshelf stood in the corner near a wooden desk covered with crumbled up papers and quills, a large bed with the covers neatly made was against the back wall, and the room was softly lit up by a single glowstone block that hung from the ceiling. Most likely Soren's living quarters, Ivor inquired. Although in the corner of his eye, he spotted something peculiar. In a corner just a few feet away from the bed was a stone pedestal holding a large block of Redstone. He made his way over to get a better look at it.

Upon closer examination, Ivor found that an item frame was nailed to the Redstone block, the item in the frame was a single redstone torch. On top of the Redstone block stood a flower pot with a daisy planted in it. He stared at it, puzzled. This seemed rather odd, even for someone like Soren. His eyes treaded downwards, where he spotted a wooden plank had been attached to the stone pedestal, a single word was scribbled in the center of it. When he read it, Ivor's eyes went soft and his curiosity was washed away, replaced with a wave of stabbing emotions and memories long thought gone.

 _Ellie_

Now the redstone torch was recognized. It was one of Soren and Ellegaard's first builds together. A festival had been approaching in the small village they once lived in, and Soren thought it would fun to build a sculpture that also played music. The sculpture part was Soren's forte, and he managed to build a magnificent statue of a man holding a pickaxe made out of stone and wool blocks. The only issue had been trying to get the note blocks to play, which often led to horrible screeching sounds coming from the statue after many failed attempts with redstone lines. That's when Ellegaard had stepped in. The young engineer was already a protégée with redstone and she had the note blocks properly working within three days. Supposedly she only agreed to help because she was sick of being woken up by the noise, but the others could tell by the grin she shared with Soren once it was complete that it was an item of satisfaction. After the festival had ended and the cleanup started, Ivor had been roped into helping them dismantle their build. Soren had come across extra supplies from it, one such item was a redstone torch that they hadn't used for the statue.

 _"There's an extra torch, Ellegaard," Soren said, holding it up in his hand, "Do you want it?"_

 _Ellegaard was busy placing cobblestone in a chest, didn't even look up as she replied, "No thanks, I've got plenty. You keep it, I've found that having spare torches are a big help in a jam."_

Ivor had no trace of Ellegaard in his possession, he held onto nothing of their former friendship. Most of it was either thrown away in one of his early rages or disappeared with the Wither Storm. Her armor, which brought one of the first painful regrets when he had saw it being worn by Jesse at the cave, was given back to the engineers of Redstonia by Olivia. Ivor wouldn't dare approach the city, he knew that the mere sight of him would end badly. It was his monster that had taken away their idol, after all. But here was a single torch from the past, left over from a build that most would consider amateur work. To think Soren had kept it all these years…

The alchemist lowered his head slightly and shut his eyes, releasing a long sigh. Hm. That flower on the top looked a bit crooked. Ivor brought his head up and began raising an arm. Perhaps he would simply straighten it out a little.

But his eyes were met with a ball fur and splurge of orange, black, and white. A cat had settled itself on top of the redstone block, lounging about and tapping the flower pot closer and closer to the edge with its tiny paw. Ivor quickly grabbed it before the cat could send it over, and with fury in his glare, he quickly brushed the cat off the block for daring to lounge upon a memorial.

"Shoo, shoo!" He shouted, the cat hissed at him before scurrying off. Ivor placed the flower pot back on top as he grumbled, "Wretched feline."

Ugh, _cats_. How he hated them. Ever since having to deal with that pain-in-the-butt cat that belonged to-

…Wait a minute. Since when did Soren own a cat? A cat that looked strikingly familiar for that matter. No. Not a chance. That was impossible. The odds of it being _that_ cat were incredibly low. There was no possible way.

Suddenly he heard the door slam shut. Ivor spun around, where he was presented with an unfortunate sight. It was a young woman, her hair the color of blood, a blue cap rested on her head, green eyes covered by thick glasses, and a shiny diamond axe in her hand.

"Hello Ivor," Cassie Rose said, a voice that sent chills down his spine.

Oh gravel.

* * *

When came to finding Soren, Lady Luck wasn't on the side of Jesse and Olivia either. The hallway they had entered was filled with different rooms. Already they had discovered a small kitchen, two bedrooms, about four bathrooms, but every single one of them had no sign of anybody around.

"Doesn't this seem familiar?" Olivia spoke up as Jesse was exiting a storage closet they'd found, shutting the door behind her.

"What do you mean?" She asked when they began walking again.

Olivia folded her arms, "You and I are walking through a huge laboratory, looking for Soren in another world, and in this place he's studying some weird creature."

Jesse thought for a moment before grinning, "Déjà vu at its finest."

"Do you think he has a Mooshroom suit?" Olivia jokingly asked.

"Well if he does, _you're_ wearing it this time," Jesse declared, shaking her head as memories of that Endermen suit flashed in her mind. The smell that seemed akin to rotten eggs mixed with sweat was awful to just remember. "I refuse to learn what a Mooshroom smells like."

The hallway went on for who-knew-how-long until finally stopping at a dead end, where a large bookshelf stood, reaching the ceiling, almost as if it were its own wall. Olivia placed her hands at her hips, releasing a small sigh.

"Guess that's it," Jesse said, "Maybe we should turn back and see if Ivor found anything?"

The engineer shook her head, "Something doesn't seem right. Why make a hallway so long if you're just going to stop it with a bookshelf?"

"Good point," Jesse agreed. She reached her hand forward and took one of the hundreds of books from the lower shelf. It was covered with a small layer of dust that Jesse wiped off with her gloved hand. The cover read: _The Encyclopedia of Fungi from A to Z_. The ravenette's eyebrows furrowed. Not helpful. She bent down to put it back when she noticed a small light emitting from the spot she had taken it. Jesse moved closer and pushed aside the other books to get a better look. There was a small crack in the wooden back of the shelf, acting almost like a peephole. Though her sight of what lied on the other side was limited, she could clearly see a small space and an open iron door. Jesse shot her head back up and looked at Olivia, "There's a door behind this bookshelf!"

Jesse scooted over to make room for Olivia to bend down and look through the crack as well, causing her friend's eyes to go wide when she saw the door.

"You're right," Olivia stood back up, "now the question is, how do we get the bookshelf out of the way?"

"Do you have an axe?" Jesse suggested, easiest solution first. The shelf seemed built into the wall, so it probably would be a waste of time to try and pull it open with their hands.

She shook her head, "No, I didn't think I'd need one since we were going to Crown Mesa."

Jesse gripped her arm slightly, a small pang of guilt for their Soren-hunt interrupting her friend's visit with Harper poked at her, "Sorry about messing up your trip, Liv."

Olivia rose an eyebrow, "You're seriously apologizing for that? Jesse, for one thing, you didn't take over this trip, that was more Ivor. Second of all, I don't mind. I see Harper all the time, but we couldn't find Soren anywhere. Besides, if we do find him, I've got a few words for him."

"I think I'm gonna punch him," Jesse piped in.

Olivia smirked at that comment, "Exactly. So don't apologize," She started to turn back to the bookshelf when suddenly she shot back around and quickly added, "And don't even _start_ to apologize for apologizing."

Jesse couldn't help but chuckle, "Okay, okay, sor- Uh, I mean, you're right. Let's just get back to opening this thing."

"Now you're talking," Olivia replied. She began examining the shelf once more, "I think I may have seen something like this before. Last time I went to Redstonia, Calvin was showing me this security measure they came up with. If it's something like that then maybe…Well I didn't bring an axe, but good thing I didn't forget this."

The engineer trailed off as she reached into her inventory and pulled out an iron pickaxe. She looked downwards and narrowed her eyes, aiming for a certain block on the floor, "If I'm right then it should be right...here!" Olivia swung the pickaxe down, popping the wooden block from its spot on the floor and shrinking it to a smaller size, she picked it up and grinned upon seeing the hole left in its place. Jesse looked down, spotting a ladder that lead into a basement-like room dimly lit by redstone torches. The two girls exchanged satisfied grins before Olivia tossed the wooden block to Jesse and began climbing down the ladder, "Stay up here and hold that for a sec."

Jesse got on her knees and bent over slightly to get a better look at the room. She peered down, spotting Olivia pulling her goggles over her eyes and looking around. The room wasn't bright enough to see what exactly she was looking at.

"What's down there?" Jesse called to her.

"Lots of redstone wiring and some pistons," Olivia shouted back up, "It's what I thought it was. Jesse, remember back in Soren's temple when Ivor locked us in that room?"

"Yeah?"

"It's like that. The bookshelf gets moved by a system of pistons. It's a security measure, you use a bookshelf to fool people into thinking there's nothing there, but underneath it there's pistons that move it."

Jesse squinted her eyes in attempt to see it better, "Do you think you can get it open?"

"Normally there's just supposed to be a lever that you flip," Olivia continued, "I guess he took it with him. But I think if I re-wire it a certain way then it should open. Keep a look out for me, alright?"

"Sure thing," Jesse watched Olivia walk forward, disappearing into a part of the room covered by shadows. She couldn't see her anymore, but the sounds of redstone crunching and being shifted gave her assurance that she was still there. There wasn't much else Jesse could do at the moment, this was Olivia's department when it came to anything redstone. The most redstone work Jesse could do was lighting up lamps or making trails to set off TNT. She remembered way back when Olivia had attempted to get her into redstone, but after one of her lessons nearly blew up the treehouse, the two of them along with Axel agreed that teaching Jesse redstone was a lost cause.

Jesse moved away from the hole, standing back up and keeping her eyes on the hall they had walked from. While they hadn't seen anything dangerous during their search, she wasn't taking any chances. Whatever forces ran the universe seemed to get a laugh out of throwing a disaster or a monster at them the moment she let her guard down. Jesse mentally took a note to keep her ears open for any loud noises or Ivor calling for help if he ran into trouble.

"Almost…" She heard Olivia's voice echo down below, "And...that should do it!"

Jesse heard the clank of gears turning from the walls behind her. She turned around watching the bookshelf slide into the floor, revealing the open iron door in its entirety.

"Nice!" Jesse exclaimed, looking over to the hole to see a beaming Olivia climb up from the ladder. "You've done it again, o' genius redstone engineer."

"Oh stop, you're much too kind," Olivia playfully replied, dramatically placing a hand on her chest and bowing.

The duo walked forward, entering the opened doorway to find yet another quartz staircase leading to a small room below. Jesse and Olivia looked at each other, their annoyed expressions were a matching set.

"Why am I not surprised?" The engineer deadpanned as she headed down the steps.

Jesse trailed behind, giving a shrug, "I don't get it, is the guy allergic to ladders?"

* * *

Surprisingly, this staircase in particular was the shortest they had encountered today. The bottom of the steps revealed a long yet small room. The large bookshelves surrounded the corners of the room; stacks of papers were scattered about; a small trash bin stood a distance away, filled with crumbled up balls of paper and broken quills; several blocks of glowstone that lit up the place were randomly placed throughout the room; a crafting table was nestled in an empty corner, and at the end of the room was a spruce wood desk covered with books and papers.

An oak wood chair stood in front of him, and in that chair sat a familiar figure. Orange and light brown armor mixed with a black scarf and red hair was turned away from the two girls as they slowly entered the room, once again unaware of their presence.

Jesse looked over at her friend, unable to find words, and gave her a worried look. Olivia nudged her head in the direction of the man in the chair, her dark eyes wide with the same anxious feelings that were all over Jesse's face. The girl slowly turned her head towards the redhead in the chair. Guess she was going first then. Not surprising, Jesse was used to going first in these situations. Slowly she raised her foot and took a small step forward, but immediately flinched when her steps caused the wooden floor below them to creak loudly.

"Strange," an immediately recognizable voice spoke, making the two girls slightly jump. The man in the chair slowly turned around as he continued, "I could've sworn I had the door shut. Is that you Cas-,"

The man froze upon the sight of the two people standing just a few feet away from him. He quickly grabbed a nearby cloth lying on the floor, covering a large object lying on the desk with it in an almost panicked manner. He then made direct eye contact with Jesse, allowing the girl to see a pair of dark eyes that had noticeable grey bags lying under them. Soren the Architect, formerly known as the "Builder of Worlds", was looking much more worn than the last time Jesse had seen him.

"Jesse? Olivia?" His voice shook as he rose from the chair. He stepped forward, "Are you...real? Or did I simply fall asleep at my desk again…?"

"Soren…" Jesse breathed out, words were on the tip of her tongue, but couldn't jump out.

His bearded chin lifted as his lips curved into a smile, "Ha ha! I can't believe it! You're alive! Thank goodness!"

At that statement, Jesse felt a heat run in her body that made her blood begin to boil. Her bewildered expression collapsed, replaced with a glare as she frowned and folded her arms. Olivia's brows furrowed and she placed her hands at her hips, giving Soren one of the most spine tingling scowls that Jesse had ever seen on her friend. The builder's smile faded. He avoided their gazes entirely by staring at the floor. His wrinkled hands clasped each other, fingers jittering.

"Yes," Olivia replied, her voice low and stern, "we are." She directed her attention at Jesse, "Alright, go ahead."

Before Soren could even open his mouth again, Jesse had already walked towards him. The girl reeled back her right arm, her gloved hand now curled into a fist, and swung it forward, blowing a punch right on Soren's cheek. The man fumbled backwards, letting out a yelp of pain and placing a hand on his face.

" _That_ was for abandoning us!" Jesse hissed, she shook her hand to wave off the slight sting on her knuckles.

Soren released a heavy sigh as he rubbed his cheek, luckily for the builder, it appeared Jesse had held back in her punch and didn't leave a mark, "I suppose...I deserved that."

"Noo, you think?" Olivia muttered sarcastically. Well this marked the second Order of the Stone member Jesse had punched. Two down, two more to go, she supposed. Though she doubted there would be any good reason to punch Gabriel or Magnus anytime soon. Her punches were saved for those who deserved to have sweet karma thrown back at them.

"Very well, very well," Soren said, regaining his composure, "I will start with what I owe you," The architect stood more straight, eyes full of regret and pain as he stared at the two glaring people, "I'm sorry. I fled during a moment where I was needed the most."

Jesse rose an eyebrow, "And?"

"It was cowardly. Along with selfish and foolish."

"And?"

"I regret it every moment of my life."

"Annnd?"

"I have no excuse for my actions. I abandoned those I called friends...and you all, a group of people who were dragged into that chaos because of our mistakes. And for all the pain I've caused you all and everyone in that world...I'm sorry."

He lowered his head, shutting his eyes and letting his arms fall to his side. Jesse felt pity crawling up in her chest. The anger and adrenaline from before was subduing, although she kept a stern look on her face.

She inhaled and released a long sigh. She glanced over her shoulder at Olivia, who seemed to drop her hostility as well. Jesse waited for Soren to look up again before she said in a much more calm voice, "We...uh...appreciate the apology, Soren."

"I-If I may ask," Soren stuttered out. "How exactly...are you both here right now? Is the Wither Storm destroyed? Where are the rest of your friends? Like that small pig who followed you everywhere, I must admit I was a bit fond of him."

A pained expression shot across Jesse's face. She slowly turned her head to the side, gripping her arm tightly. The sudden shift immediately alarmed Soren, his face falling into a somber appearance. Olivia gently walked up behind Jesse, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"It's…" Olivia began, keeping her hand on Jesse's shoulder while directing her attention at Soren, "...kind of a long story."

"A long story" was an understatement. With so much to catch up on, Jesse felt like they had been there for hours. The Wither Storm's defeat, the reconstruction of their world, finding the Portal Network...so much had happened in such a small period of time. Why did a year feel like a century?

"...My goodness," Soren finally said once the two girls had finished telling their story, "You've ah...certainly been busy."

During the time it took to recap the entire year, Jesse had seated herself on a tall stack of books nearby, leaning her back against the bookshelf behind her, she nodded, "Yeah. You could say that."

"Jesse," Soren's voice was soft, "again, you have my condolences about your pig."

"Reuben," The ravenette sat up straight with a sudden cold look in her green eyes, "he has a name, you know. It's _Reuben_."

"-Reuben, Reuben!" Soren hurriedly corrected himself. He could still feel the resentment towards him pointing at him like sharp icicles in a frozen cave, "Apologies…"

Olivia, who had been leaning against the wall, stood up straight and folded her arms, "Okay so, we've told you about us. Mind explaining where the hell you've been?"

Soren hesitated for a moment, his pupils darted around the room as he began, "Well you see...I've known about the Portal Network for a long time. Even before I met and formed the original Order of the Stone."

The redhead picked up some nearby paper stacks, shuffling them a bit before placing them in a chest in an orderly fashion, "You see, I wasn't actually...from our home world."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Jesse interrupted, eyes widening slightly,

"Well I'm sure you're well aware of what happens when someone spawns into existence. We wake up in a world to call home, with only a name and basic survival knowledge in our minds," He explained.

It caused Jesse to think back to the day she had spawned for a split moment. Looking back on that day, remembering how curious and naïve she was back then, she probably wouldn't have survived a day if wasn't for Olivia and Axel who had found her wandering in the woods. Just another reason out of a thousand more she was grateful to her lifelong friends. The thought of a newly spawned Soren however, _that_ was a weird image to picture when comparing him to the aged man in front of her.

"So like everyone else, I spawned into a world to call home. But said world wasn't the same as the one you call home," Soren continued, pacing in the area around the desk, "But my home world, my _real_ home world...well let's just say it was a dreadfully dull world. You could walk for days in that place and all you would find is flat fields. Every single day of my life in that world, I would build houses. But the people of my home were very strict about building homes." He shuddered, a look that almost seemed like disgust shook his face, "Every house was the same, cobblestone four by four floor, oak wood walls that must stand exactly four blocks high on each side, with one window on every wall except the front for the door. Oogh, simply dreadful."

"Yikes, sounds pretty boring," Olivia said.

"Oh you have no idea," Soren shook his head, "I swear I would've gone looney if I was still there. Haven't seen that world since the day I left, and I don't plan to ever lay eyes on it again. One day when I was gathering stone for more houses, I fell into a nearby cave. And that's when I found it...the exit portal to my world. It had even already been activated. What luck!"

The builder sat himself down in the wooden chair once more, gazing off dreamily with his tired eyes, "I'll never forget the day I first walked into the Network. It was a dream come true. So many worlds, so many different things...every portal was a new adventure on its own. I spent a long time simply hopping between worlds, until the day I met-,"

He froze, his face hardened for just a brief moment before he continued, "Well, I'll spare you the details of some rather unsavory individuals I met. Long story short, it didn't end well. I soon ended up in our world where I met Ivor, Gabriel, Ellegaard, and Magnus. You know most of the story there already, so I suppose I'll skip ahead." Soren turned in his chair, looking away from Jesse and Olivia, "After...After I ran during the fight with the Wither Storm, I knew the next safest place would be a new world in the Portal Network. I thought about returning more than once, I truly did." His gloved hands clenched onto the wooden desk, "But I suppose I was afraid of stepping into a desolate world reduced to bedrock...and knowing that I had been partly responsible for it."

Jesse frowned, "You really didn't have any faith in us, did you?"

He quickly snapped his head around to look at the young woman, "That's not what I meant!"

"That's sure what it sounds like," Olivia commented, sending him a small glare.

Soren let out a huff before once again looking away from them, " _As I was saying,_ I couldn't bring myself to go back. So...I once again began hopping across different worlds, looking for yet another place to call home. But...none of them felt right. There was no biome, even the ones that looked just as normal as home, that would ever feel like a place to settle down…"

 _Guess that explains all those books we found…_ Jesse quietly thought to herself, recalling the many titles with a familiar author name they had discovered during their own portal hopping. Another mystery solved, at the very least.

"So I decided to begin a new, different kind of life. Instead of simply settling down in a new world and hoping for the best, I would become a new man. I would travel about the Portal Network, helping anyone I came across if they needed it," He rose from the chair, standing proudly with a smile on his face, "First I set up a bit of a home base in this world we're in now. Picture it, once this Mooshroom Nature Reserve is finished, anyone who may be lost in the hallway can stumble upon a relaxing world where they'll be greeted with adorable, peaceful creatures, and to top it off, a guide to help them through that endless hallway!"

Jesse and Olivia traded looks with each other, the latter rolling her eyes as she remembered the absurdity of the world they were currently in.

Soren seemed to miss it, as he went on, "Why, just a few months ago I helped out an old acquaintance of mine. A charming—er, well she's not exactly charming more um— _eccentric_ young lady. Poor thing was stuck in some nasty cavern, but luckily I came along and saved her. Now, she's my new assistant! Do remind me to introduce you both to her once we're done here. I think you'd all get along splendidly."

"Uh, sure," Olivia replied, giving Jesse an odd look, to which the girl only gave a shrug.

"It's been quite nice actually, having another person to talk to, and she's very helpful. Oh!" Soren spun around to face his desk, eyeing the object he had covered with a cloth earlier, "Speaking of helping others, I present to you both, my latest discovery!" He pulled the cloth off with a swift tug, unveiling a large block that sat upon the desk. It was a light blue, smooth as a carved block of diamond. The corners of the block were covered by iron casing, and in the center of each side was what appeared to be a golden gem. Jesse couldn't help but tilt her head as she and Olivia moved closer to get a better look.

Olivia's eyes widened, "What...exactly are we looking at here?" She slowly reached out her hand to touch it, until Soren quickly moved in front of the mysterious block, blocking their way.

"Ah ah ah!" He frantically exclaimed, "I wouldn't touch it if I were you, he can be quite aggressive to anyone new that interacts with him. Gave me a shock to my hands the first time I picked it up."

Jesse stared at Soren, "Wait 'him'? Soren, is that block...alive?"

"Well, not quite, the block itself isn't alive. But rather, there's something alive _inside_ of the block," He corrected. He stepped aside, allowing them to see it again, before bending down slightly to make- er...well Jesse assumed it was meant to be "eye-level" with the block. "Come now friend, why don't you say hello to Jesse and Olivia?"

Silence. The block didn't even budge. The builder frowned, giving a block a small poke.

"Oh come along friend, no need to be shy! You were chatting up a storm this morning, just say hello! I promise you they're friendly people. Er...well aside from Jesse punching me, b-but she had a fair reason."

Olivia nudged Jesse's arm, signaling her to take a few steps back with her. Jesse nodded and followed, the two moving a few feet away from the block and Soren, who was still attempting to get the item to talk.

"Okay, are you getting as creeped out as I am?" Jesse whispered to her friend.

Olivia nodded, keeping her eyes locked on Soren as if he were a deadly animal, "I think he's finally cracked. I mean look at him, the guy looks like he hasn't slept in a long time. And he said he was alone for a while...I mean, you know how people go a little...crazy when they're all by themselves. Do you think his assistant is even real? We didn't see anyone else in this place."

Jesse frowned, watching Soren carefully as he chattered on to the block, "Still, what's that block? Have you ever seen something like that before?"

Olivia shook her head, "No, I mean it _does_ sort of remind me of the Redstone Heart with those edges...but still, I've never seen it."

"Yeah. Hm. I wonder if Ivor knows-," She stopped, a realization hitting her like a brick block. Her eyes went wide with panic, "Oh my gosh, Ivor!"

 _Damn it! Damn it!_ How could she have forgotten their agreement to call out if anyone found anything?! She had been so preoccupied... _Damn it!_

Olivia seemed to have picked up on the same realization as she in a rushed whisper, "Crap, do you think he's still upstairs somewhere?"

Jesse swallowed, alright, now wasn't the time to freak out. Ivor was probably fine, just had to find him. _Calm down, think of a plan._

She glanced between Soren and the staircase they had entered from as she whispered, "Alright, Olivia, can you go back upstairs and find him? I'll stay here and keep an eye on Soren."

The engineer nodded, Jesse moved in front of her as to block Soren from seeing Olivia slowly move away towards the steps in case he turned around.

However, right on cue, a familiar scream rang out, alarming all three people in the room to spin towards the staircase. A robe-wearing man with a long black beard tumbled down the steps, landing flat on his face with a grunt.

"Ivor!" Jesse shouted as she and Olivia ran to his side. Both of them grabbed one of his arms and helped him up to his feet, "You alright?"

The alchemist shook his head as he snapped out of a daze, fortunately it seemed he wasn't injured anywhere. Once he realized where he was, is expression became one of panic as he looked towards Jesse and frantically gasped, "Jesse! We have a grave problem!"

"Slow down, what happened?" Olivia asked, releasing his arm.

"Ivor?"

Ivor glanced forward, the alarm in his face falling as he looked at the architect, who stared back with wide eyes.

"Soren..." The elder man rose an eyebrow, "Well, you look terrible."

Soren was about to reply with an annoyed look, until another voice called out from the steps. A familiar young woman wearing a dark grey jumpsuit came casually walking down the steps, a cat with fur of orange, white, and black was curled around her left shoulder, resting a diamond axe on her other one.

"Hey Soren, found this weirdo intruding, what do you want to..." She trailed off the moment she laid eyes on the room. Green eyes covered by glasses darted towards Jesse in particular and narrowed. "Oh you have _got_ to be kidding me!"

"Cassie Rose?!" Jesse exclaimed.

Olivia took a long look at the woman before saying, "Wait wait wait, as in, _White Pumpkin_ Cassie Rose?"

"Oh great, you've heard of me," Cassie groaned in a sarcastic tone. Winslow hopped off her shoulder and scurried about, jumping around in a pile of papers.

Jesse immediately looked at Soren, "You know this psycho?!"

Cassie turned her glare to Soren as well and retorted, "You know these pests?"

"You all know each other?" Soren gasped, jaw to the floor.

"YES!" Both girls shouted in unison before shooting glares at each other once more.

Ivor took a few steps back as he muttered, "She attacked me while I was in the other room. I tried to get away but she dragged me here." He gave the girl his own death glare, "And for the record, was throwing me down the stairs really necessary?!"

"You were the one snooping around Soren's room, don't turn this on me," Cassie snapped back, shifting the axe off her shoulder and holding it up in a defensive stance. In response, Jesse raised her own sword and moved in front of Ivor, eyes locked onto Cassie. Olivia grabbed her bow and arrow from her inventory, quickly aiming an arrow at the axe wielding girl and giving her a look that read _don't move from that spot_.

"That's enough!" shouted Soren who quickly ran in between the two parties, holding up his hands as if making a wall between them, "I can see there are clearly tensions between you all."

"That's an understatement," Ivor muttered.

"Regardless," Soren continued sharply, "I will have no fighting in my home. You might disturb our friend in the block!"

Cassie let out a scoff as she begrudgingly placed her axe back in her inventory, "Seriously, Soren? You're _still_ obsessing over that thing?"

"I'm telling you, there is someone trapped in that block! And I will not rest until I get him out," The builder argued, "Cassie, you promised you'd assist me in my work in exchange for a place for you and your cat to stay, so please keep to your word!"

Winslow had slipped away from the group, jumping onto the desk, he eyed the block curiously before tapping it with his small paw.

"Winslow!" Soren exclaimed, running over quickly and picking up the cat, "Bad kitty, don't be rude to our friend!"

Winslow released a hiss, thrashing about in Soren's arms and trying to bite him. Cassie sighed and stepped down from the steps, giving Jesse a small shove to the side as she made her way to the back of the room. The girl quickly grabbed Winslow from Soren's grasp and placed him on the wooden floor.

"Look Soren, I was all for making your silly nature reserve for those mushroom cows, but then you found that stupid thing," Cassie stated, placing her hands at her hips, "Every morning I find you down here talking to it. It's _creepy_."

Ivor took a step towards them. He gestured to Olivia and Jesse to put away their weapons, which the two girls obliged with some hesitation. A curious glance came in his eyes as he looked at the mysterious item sitting on the desk. "Soren, if I may ask, where did you find that thing?"

Soren scanned Ivor carefully before slowly answering, "It was in some sort of storage chamber in an abandoned world. I believe it's a sort of containment chamber, and I've been attempting to get it open for weeks now. Unfortunately most of my attempts have ended in mayhem."

Ivor bent down, examining the block from all different angles. He reached over and grabbed the top of the block, heaving it with a grunt to try and open it. No such luck. The alchemist released it, waving his hands to shake off the pain that grew in his fingers.

"You're right, it's sealed shut, and I'm guessing a pickaxe was no help either?" Ivor asked while looking at Soren.

Soren nodded, "I've tried everything, a pickaxe, an enchanted pickaxe, a sword, axe, dynamite, everything! It simply won't budge."

"What kind of enchantment did you use?"

Soren blinked at the seemingly irrelevant question but answered flatly, "Sharpness."

"I see, then I have a theory..." He looked over his shoulder, "Olivia! Come here for a moment."

Olivia gave him a suspicious look, but slowly made her way over. Jesse trailed behind, Cassie may have put away her axe, but that didn't mean she couldn't suddenly attack them all while their guard was down. Best to not take any risks around the former psycho-pumpkin-murderer.

"The Sharpness enchantment may have not been enough," Ivor went on, "but perhaps an enchantment done by the Old Builders will be. Olivia, take out the enchanted flint and steel."

"What?"

"Just do it!"

The engineer slowly reached into her inventory and raised out the glowing blue flint and steel. She opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off when a loud humming noise blasted into the room. Jesse darted her head towards the mystery block and released a small gasp. The block that had been stationary was now suddenly glowing a vibrant blue, it began flashing, as if it were some sort of alarm.

"Woah," Jesse breathed out.

Olivia cautiously moved the flint and steel closer to the block, causing the flashing to become much more brighter. She let out a surprised yelp and moved back, dimming the glow on the block.

"It's...reacting to the flint and steel," Soren observed.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Cassie Rose said. "Use the flint and steel on the block!"

Olivia frowned at her, "Just...give me a sec, okay?!"

Jesse felt a sinking feeling in her gut. Something about this scenario just didn't feel right. The way the block was humming and emitting that light...it felt familiar. But not in a nostalgic sense, but rather in a sense that it felt like something horrible was creeping back up...

"Wait!" Jesse said loudly, all eyes turned to her. She paused for a moment before taking a deep breath, brushing a hair that had fallen into her face to the side, "W-We have no idea what this thing is. It could be dangerous!"

Ivor looked back at the block, "Jesse may be right. Perhaps we should observe it more before-,"

"Stuff and nonsense!" Soren exclaimed out of nowhere, "My friend has been trapped in there, suffering long enough!"

The builder lunged forward, snatching the flint and steel from Olivia's hands and faced the block.

"Hey!" Olivia shouted, she attempted to grab it back, but was blocked off by Cassie Rose shoving her arm in front of her.

"WAIT!" Ivor screamed.

 _"SOREN DON'T!"_ Jesse screeched over them as she attempted a grab herself. The look in Soren's eyes were unreadable, frozen onto the glowing block, it felt frightening. He flicked the steel over the flint, a few blue sparks flew off, landing on the block.

The next thing Jesse knew, a blast was tossing her backwards. She heard a monstrous _BOOM_ that shook the room, mixed with the grunts and screams of the others along with rustling papers. Jesse released a loud _oomph_ as she felt her back slam against something.

When she opened her eyes, she couldn't see a thing. The room was now filled with a thick cloud of smoke. She coughed as she moved her hands around, trying to feel where she was. Her gloved hands brushed against the wooden floor, something thick was lying near her leg...a book. The thing that she was smacked against must've been the bookshelf in the corner. Well that was a start, at least. Slowly, Jesse rose to her feet, frantically looking around, still blinded by the thick smoke.

"Olivia!" She shouted into the air, pausing to cough again before continuing, "Olivia! Ivor! Soren? Cassie!"

"Jesse?!" Olivia's voice called out to her, "Where are you?!"

"Jesse! Olivia!" Ivor's voice rang out.

Jesse cupped her hands, "Guys! Just stay where you are! I'm coming! K-Keep shouting! I'll follow your voices- ACK!"

Her foot had gotten caught on something heavy lying on the floor, causing her to nearly trip. Once she regained her balance, Jesse stepped over and continued walking forward blindly in the thick smoke. She coughed once again, her lungs were starting to feel heavy as the smoke became more suffocating. Jesse shook her head, had to ignore it, had to find everyone and get them out. _Focus. Focus._

Out of the corner of her eye, Jesse spotted a human-like silhouette approaching her. A shadow of what appeared to be a hand was reaching out towards her. She smiled with relief and began heading towards it.

"Olivia, is that you?" She called out.

"I don't see you!" Olivia's voice responded, it was coming from the opposite side, and the silhouette hadn't seem to respond to it. Not Olivia then, but it was someone at least.

"Iv-," Jesse began to say her next best guess, when suddenly the silhouette jumped at her, knocking her to the floor. She screamed out as she felt her head hit the hard wooden floor. Something heavy was on top of her, and Jesse thrashed about trying to push it off. As she struggled, she caught a glimpse of the silhouette on top of her. Her stomach twisted at the sight before her. The figure on top of her was a shadow-like being, made up of what appeared to be raven black pixels, it was almost like looking at a glitch. Every part of the figure's body was twitching, the only still part being two glowing white eyes that stared down at her. "What the-?!" she gasped.

She felt two heavy hands wrap tightly around her neck. Jesse thrashed even more, attempting to yank the being's hands off her, but for some reason, it was like she couldn't even grab them. She gasped loudly.

"Jesse?! What's happening?!" She heard a startled Olivia cry out.

"Get off...!" She managed to choke out. With her free hand, she reached behind her, managing to grab her enchanted sword from her inventory. "GET OFF ME!" Jesse swung it at her attacker, but the sword hadn't seem to make any impact on the creature. It felt like she was attacking a cloud. Before she could allow her confusion to sink in, the two white eyes on the being glowed even brighter, to the point where it was more blinding than the smoke around them.

"Jesse?! Jesse!"

Slowly, the voices of her friends calling out became muffled before everything went mute. She felt the strength leave her body, her arms went limp and fell to the floor. She couldn't see anything.

Everything went white.

Silent.

* * *

 **Author's Note: *collapses on floor* This has been...the longest chapter I've ever written. I swear I rewrote the bookshelf scene at least ten times...But on the bright side, now that most of the exposition is done, the action can finally get rolling! Woooo! Oh and hey, got this chapter done on New Years! What a great start to 2017! Hahahaha- *collapses on floor again* Okay I'm gonna go take a long nap in the corner now...**

 **Anyway, hello everyone! As always, thank you for reading and thank you for the feedback on the previous chapter! I really do appreciate it, and I hope I can make the story enjoyable for you all as it goes on. Oh! Happy New Year by the way, let's make 2017 a good year! See ya next chapter!**


	5. Hero

When Jesse came to, her eyes opened slowly, as she tried to adjust to a bright light. She lifted her hand in front of the light and sat up, blinking a few times to get rid of the sting. When her vision returned to her, she looked around, seeing the room as it had appeared before the smoke had filled it, albeit messier. One of the corner bookshelves had toppled over and left a mound of books scattered. The paper stacks had collapsed, covering most of the wooden floor like snow. She looked over at the desk. The chair was lying on its side, and the mysterious block had vanished.

The sight of the block missing snapped Jesse back into alertness. She hurriedly got up from the floor, looking around at the room. It seemed she was the only one here, no sign of her friends, Soren, Cassie, Winslow, or that...thing that attacked her. Jesse moved her hand, tracing it along her neck that now felt sore while breathing slowly. Good, looked like whatever attacked her hadn't done much damage. But the emptiness of the room gave a sinking feeling in her gut. It was much too quiet for a room that had been in chaos only a few moments ago. _Was_ it a few moments ago? How long had she been out? And where was everyone? Before she could allow her mind to wander into worse case scenarios, Jesse turned and headed up the staircase.

"Olivia?" She called out when she entered the hallway. The bookshelf that Olivia opened before was still sunken into the floor. She stepped over it as she continued, "Ivor?"

Jesse paused for a moment, remembering that there could be a dangerous being roaming around, and reached her hand back to grab her sword from her inventory.

...Only for her to realize that it wasn't there.

"Oh, that's just lovely," Jesse muttered under her breath as she pinched the bridge of her nose. She didn't see it back in the room either, meaning it was probably swiped by the monster. Well, at least, that's what she was calling the thing that attacked her. Despite its human shape, the shadow, glitching body it had along with those glowing lifeless eyes just screamed "unnatural". She pushed away the terrifying image in her memory and kept walking. Alright, no sword, but that was fine. It hadn't exactly helped her out when that thing had been on top of her anyway. Besides, if she was really in a jam, she could do some damage with her good old fists, right? Priority number one, find everyone. Then she could worry about the monster. Jesse turned the corner into another hall, where she was met with a four-way intersection. Weird, had that been there before? She remembered the halls being somewhat linear when she had been looking with Olivia. "Guys? Cassie, Soren? Uh…Winslow?"

No response again. Jesse frowned, looked like her only option was to check all three halls. She stepped forward, but stopped when she heard a crunching sound from underneath her. Raising her foot, she saw sparkles of red stuck to the bottom of her right boot. She scraped it off and brought it closer to her face to get a better look. Redstone. Jesse re-examined the floor below her, noticing that there was more scattered along the floor, forming a path that led down the hallway to her left. Jesse grinned, redstone trails didn't make themselves, meaning someone had been here. Olivia most likely, she thought. The ravenette bolted ahead, following the trail into the left hall. The trail continued straight ahead before finally leading to another open iron door, that led to a large room next to it was a lever pulled upward.

Jesse felt the air around her become much hotter as she stepped into the room. The room itself was large with a high ceiling, save for a giant contraption standing in the center. At first glance, Jesse couldn't tell what she was looking at. It was a combination of slime blocks, two pistons facing opposite directions were holding the slime in place, and a large block of redstone stood at the top. Strange combination, sure, but Jesse couldn't help but feel she had seen it somewhere before. She stepped towards it, scanning it up and down until she spotted something peeking out from behind the contraption. An elbow it seemed like, it was moving up down while the sound of redstone crunching began.

"Olivia!" Jesse exclaimed with a grin, she walked around to make eye contact, "There you are, what happened to-,"

Her smile collapsed, her voice stopped dead in its tracks as her whole face appeared to pale. Jesse was met with a pair of brown eyes covered by steampunk goggles, on the face of a woman with short, light brown hair that curled at the ends. The woman wore a brown jumper covering a white ruffled shirt, a bright red pendant clipped onto the ruffle. There was no mistaking it, as Jesse matched the image in her memory with the woman before her. This was the famous Ellegaard the Redstone Engineer.

The same one that died right in front of her.

"Ellegaard?" Jesse spoke in a small, quivering voice. Her bones felt chilled, as if a brutal winter wind had swirled inside her body, locking her in place. "But...you…"

"Questions later, Jesse," Ellegaard replied in a tone that matched one of a strict teacher, she turned her head away, focusing on a patch of redstone dust she was smoothing out on a piston, "Now be helpful and hand me a button? It's in that chest over there."

Jesse felt her lip tremble, caught off guard by Ellegaard's refusal to address the elephant in the room. She was on the verge of letting so many words tumble from her. But instead, she simply stuttered, "Y-Yeah, sure."

She shuffled over to a wooden chest lying a few feet away from the machine. She got on her knees and lifted the top, sticking her hands inside and shuffling around tools and materials until spotting a square button made from cobblestone. Jesse lifted it up with her hand, presenting it to Ellegaard, "This it?"

The engineer only needed to take a quick look before returning to her work, "That's the one. Bring it here."

Jesse complied, hurriedly rushing back over to hand it to Ellegaard. She grabbed it from Jesse's trembling hand and stuck it onto the piston, a satisfied expression on her face.

"That should do it, thanks." Ellegaard said as she looked at Jesse, but the smile on her face scrunched up into a frown at the sight of Jesse's expression, "Jesse, no offense, but you look like you're about to puke. If you are, try to aim it away from the machine, alright?"

"You're alive," Jesse spoke almost breathlessly, "You're _here_. But-," She stared downwards, trying to wrap her head around what she was witnessing, a part of her was convinced that she'd gone insane, "I saw you, you-!"

"Died?" Ellegaard interrupted sharply. Jesse met her eyes again, the pure blunt nature of Ellegaard's remark was more unsettling than her previous obliviousness to the subject, "Oh yes. I did." The brunette clenched a hand to her chest, "Still hurts like hell."

"But how-,"

Ellegaard held a hand up, silencing Jesse, and slowly said, "Listen, you clearly have a lot of questions, and I get that. But I need to ask you something first." The calm face soon narrowed into a fierce glare, "How could you?"

Jesse felt a pain in her chest. A heavy lump was forming in her throat as she felt her lip tremble. She couldn't find anything to say. What _could_ she say? All she could do was stare with remorseful eyes.

"Oh quit the sad eyes," Ellegaard snapped at her, folding her arms. "You know exactly what you did. _You_ took my armor, and _you_ let me die!"

The day it happened was replaying over and over again in Jesse's head, Ellegaard's strained voice, the life fading away from her eyes, the distraught expressions of Soren and Magnus, all of it was rushing back. She remembered the moment back in the cave where she fully realized that she was the cause, that she admitted it was her fault, only to hear reassurance by both her friends and Magnus himself that it wasn't. Their hearts were in the right place that day, but Jesse couldn't believe them. The guilt that clung to her soul every time Ellegaard was brought up refused to let her believe otherwise.

"I-," Jesse began, she paused to push down the growing lump in her throat so that her voice wouldn't shake, "I-I'm sorry, Ellegaard. I'm so sorry, I had no idea what would've happened, if I did then I would've never-,"

"'I'm sorry, I'm sorry!'" Ellegaard pitched her voice higher in a mocking way as if imitating Jesse, "You think 'sorry' is going to magically make everything better? Sorry doesn't give me my life back!"

"I know, I know it won't but I-,"

The brunette shook her head and scoffed, "I can't believe this. You're not even wearing my armor! You traded it in for one of Ivor's shiny new ones, I see?"

"No- No Ellegaard!" Jesse exclaimed, her Star Shield armor started feeling incredibly more heavy, "It's not like that! I just- I couldn't wear it. It was yours, it didn't feel right to keep it on! I-It wasn't...mine. So, after everything startled settling down, Magnus and me took it to Redstonia. That place was your home, right? W-We thought it would be better if it was there. Your friend Calvin took it and-,"

"Oh yes, the people of Redstonia," Ellegaard once again cut her off. The engineer began pacing around the room, shooting Jesse cold glares whenever she got the chance, "The people who now think I'm a fraud! That everything I worked for was a sham created by the command block. You know, I _hardly_ used that stupid thing." Her voice grew louder and angrier, "But _nooo_ , you just had to convince Gabriel to let that little secret spill, didn't you? What a way to respect the dead by telling the world about their biggest mistake!"

Jesse stepped forward, trying to keep the calm in her voice, she didn't want to start blubbering an apology that would mean nothing to the bitter engineer, "Ellegaard, please listen to me! Gabriel, Magnus, they didn't want to lie anymore! And I didn't want to lie either! But the people of Redstonia don't think you're a sham! They created this giant statue in your honor, everything you ever made is on display, so's your armor! They had a giant memorial and-,"

Ellegaard spun to directly face Jesse, slamming her foot on the floor, "And that brings us back to point number one! _You let me die!_ "

With a quick _fwoosh_ , Ellegaard suddenly pulled a golden sword from her inventory, aiming the blade right at Jesse, eyes full of hatred locking onto the ravenette.

Jesse backed away, her eyes widened as she asked in a cautious voice, "Woah, woah! What are you doing?!"

"Repaying the favor," Ellegaard gritted through clenched teeth, as if she were a ferocious beast bearing its fangs. She released an ear-bleeding screech, "NOW DIE!"

Ellegaard stampeded towards Jesse, raising the sword up before swiping it to the side aiming it towards her neck. Jesse only had a sparse amount of time to react, as she quickly tucked and rolled out of the way before the sword could make impact. Instead it hit on of the pistons set up on the contraption besides them, a large crack forming where the sword hit.

"Ellegaard! Stop it, please!" Jesse shouted as she stood up, keeping a distance away from the other woman who was busy yanking the sword from the crack, "Y-You're right, it was my fault, I know it was! I screwed up, but there's nothing I can do now! Please, just put down the sword, and let's talk about this!"

But Ellegaard wasn't stopping from this rampage, as she managed to get the sword free from the crack and began walking towards Jesse again, the sword still tightly gripped in her hand.

Jesse kept backing away until she felt her back against the wall, she looked back at Ellegaard, and practically begged, "Stop it! I don't want to hurt you!"

Ellegaard stopped for just a moment. She cocked her head to the side as her red lips twitched into a smirk, "A little too late for that, isn't it?"

She then rose the sword above her head, gripping both of her hands on the handle, and aimed for the dead center of Jesse's chest. Before Jesse could even say another sword, Ellegaard began to lunge forward towards her.

"NO!" Jesse cried out, jumping to the side as the sword stabbed a hole in the wall that was once behind her. Ellegaard growled at the fact that she'd missed again, but it gave Jesse just enough time to bolt towards the open iron door. She heard the thudding footsteps of the redstone engineer right behind her. When Jesse nearly tripped back out into the hallway, her hands flew towards the level besides the door and gripped it tightly. With a loud grunt, Jesse yanked the lever down, shutting the iron door behind her with a loud slam, and trapping Ellegaard inside the room.

The ravenette panted heavily, the exhaustion finally catching up to her. She slowly took a few steps away from the door and stood against the opposite wall from the door. She placed a hand on her forehead, feeling sweat trickling down.

But just as it seemed to be over, fate decided to punch her in the gut once more, as a loud _SMASH_ came from the other side of the closed iron door, followed by a blood-curdling scream of rage. It startled Jesse, as she leaned even more into the wall and deeply inhaled.

"It should've been you!" Ellegaard's voice mixed with the sounds of her slamming the sword against the door.

"It should've been you!"

Jesse felt the painful lump in her throat burst, as tears began to well in her eyes. She slowly sunk to her knees, clamping a hand over her mouth to muffle the sobs escaping her as the screaming and smashing only continued. The iron door trembled with each hit, but it wasn't going to break open anytime soon. This image before her clashed with the calm, collected, and witty Ellegaard from her memory, despite only knowing her for just a few days. That only made it feel worse.

"It should've been you!"

 _SMASH._

"It should've been you!"

 _THUMP._

Jess covered her ears, tears flowing down her cheeks and dropping onto the wooden floor of the hallway.

"It should've been **you**!"

 _BANG_.

Jesse could only sit and whimper, as the loud hits on the door and Ellegaard's enraged screaming of the same phrase only continued. She could've sworn she heard hysteric sobs in between the screams, but Jesse couldn't bring herself to look through the window of the door.

Finally it all culminated with one, drawn out, screech from Ellegaard.

 _"YOU SHOULD BE THE ONE DEAD!"_

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Jesse softly sobbed out, despite knowing Ellegaard wouldn't hear her, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry…!"

At long last, the screaming died down, leaving the hallway as silent as it had been before she entered that room. Jesse slowly lifted her head, glancing at the door window. The room on the other side was completely dark, no sign of the contraption or Ellegaard. Jesse stood up, making her way back over to the door. She started to reach for the lever to open it, but something in her forced her to stop and slowly lower her hand.

"Ellegaard?" Jesse meekly said. She peered into the window, but the shadows of the room were pitch black. Jesse took a step back, gulped, and then said in the calmest voice she could muster, "I'll...be back, okay? I need to find my friends...and then I'll come back and we can talk this out. Okay?"

No response.

"Okay…" Jesse sighed. The ravenette turned away, walking back in the direction the four-way hall. She raised her arm and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her armor. Alright. Had to focus again. Focus. Focus. Now wasn't the time to be crying. Olivia and Ivor had to be in the place somewhere. Find them first. Ellegaard could come later. Jesse pushed aside the many questions that were still wracking her brain at this point. They had to come later. Right? Right. Find them first, maybe she could bring them back to the room with her. Perhaps Ellegaard would be a bit more calm around Olivia. At the very least, all three of them could restrain her if she attacked them. But there was also the issue of the monster. She would need to be on guard. "Come on Jesse," She muttered to herself, "can't fall apart here."

* * *

She spent what felt like an eternity wandering around the hallways. It only became more and more maze-like the farther she went. There would be hallways that led to dead ends, only for Jesse to turn around and find herself at another four-way. Sometimes she would find staircases, both ones that went up and down, but all they led to were more hallways. Any door she found would just open to an empty room. And there was still no sign of anyone, not even the monster. Jesse wandered aimlessly, calling out their names but only getting the response of silence.

"How the hell does Soren live in this place?" She sighed as she turned another corner. It was starting to feel less like a house and more like a labyrinth at this point, and the walls started to feel like they were becoming more narrow as she kept walking. "Must be a pain getting to the bathroom," Jesse joked to herself in an attempt to keep her spirits up.

The girl stepped into yet another corridor. This time there were only two halls, one going left and another right, similar to the intersection where she, Olivia, and Ivor had split up before. Welp. Fifty-fifty shot again. Left or right? She had gone left last time, so maybe the right hallway would give her a bit more luck. She walked straight ahead to the right, this hall seemed to be somewhat more linear. Good sign, right? Even though every single hallway looked the same now…

"Olivia? Ivor?" Jesse called out again, and again, it was in vain. "Anybody?"

And just her luck today, the hallway was another dead end. Jesse released a small groan and turned around, hoping to retrace her steps. But when she did, a figure was blocking her path. It was a guy, who was probably a few inches taller than her. He had brown hair combed upward, lime green eyes, wore a black jacket covering a bright green shirt, and pieces of steel armor on his wrists and shoulders. The man wore a smug look on his face. It was one that Jesse knew all too well, a face that had agitated her for most of her life.

"Looking for something?" He asked, using one arm to lean against the wall, a mockingly sympathetic tone in his voice.

"Aiden?" Jesse questioned, eyes perking up in disbelief, "What are you doing here?"

Aiden stood up straight once more and reached into his inventory. He pulled from his back an enchanted diamond sword, or to be more specific, her sword.

"Just making a delivery," he answered, "Catch!"

He tossed her sword towards her. It spun in the air before Jesse grasped the handle with both her hands and caught it. She examined it, making sure he hadn't left any surprises on it. To her slight relief, it seemed there were no scratches or gunpowder on it.

Jesse lowered it to her side as she awkwardly looked at him, "Thanks."

The "kind" gesture of returning her sword to her—she wasn't going to ask how he got it in the first place—was the least confusing part. First things first, last Jesse checked, Aiden was still behind bars in the new home built by the residents of Sky City (the new city now being named Ground City, not exactly a creative name, but it was the only one Isa and Milo agreed on) with Maya and Gill. Jesse hadn't seen him since the aftermath of Sky City's downfall, but Lukas had gone a few times whenever he'd win the Atlas for the week. From what he'd told her about his visits, Aiden wasn't exactly the most active prisoner. Lukas had mentioned how he only said a few words and spent the rest of his time lying in his cell. Gill and Maya had been put on parole for good behavior, but it seemed the people of Ground City weren't about to let the leader of the group that had destroyed their former home off the hook so easily. So what was he doing here? One possibility could be that Soren took him in as well, but from their conversation earlier, Jesse was sure that Cassie and Winslow were the only house guests that Soren was aware of.

"It's way more than you deserve," Aiden snarked at her.

Yep. There it was. He hadn't changed a bit.

Jesse rolled her eyes and sighed, "Look, I don't know how you got here, but right now, I don't care. Have you seen anyone else in this place?"

The former bully folded his arms and shrugged, "Maybe I have. What are you going to do to make me talk, Jesse?"

"You're seriously doing this right now?" Jesse said, returning his smirk with an annoyed expression, "I don't know if you've seen it, but Soren just let out some weird glowy-eyed monster that likes to strangle people. So unless you want to just stand here and let it find us, you can tell me if you know if anyone's here."

Aiden dropped the smirk, now giving her a glare of his own mixed in with a look of disgust, "Don't give me that 'bigger person' crap."

"Have. You. Seen. Anyone?" Jesse repeated, each word sounding more and more pained.

"I'm not telling you a damn thing," he taunted, "you've got no right to lecture me, not after what you did."

Finally at her wit's end, Jesse threw up her arms, looking at him straight in the eyes with an icy glare, "If you're not going to help, then I'm not wasting my time with you when my friends could be in danger. Now, move!"

She pushed him aside, allowing her to walk past him, something she remembered having to do a lot back in their old hometown. But before she could mutter something about him being a pain, Jesse felt a rough hand grab her by the back of her armor and yanked her backwards. She yelped and stumbled back, as Aiden moved in front of her and took out his own sword. Before Jesse could respond, she felt a cold wind blow past her, followed by fierce drops of water pounding on her whole body. Rain? But they were inside- She reevaluated her surroundings. The wooden floor and red walls of the hallway had vanished, replaced by a stormy night sky and a cobblestone bridge extending from a patch of a green grassy cliff side. The sounds of thunder and screeching Ghasts echoed far away.

"Sky City?" She gasped, looking around with pure confusion. "How did we get-,"

"You're not walking away again, Jesse," Aiden interrupted in a low, menacing voice. Jesse glanced ahead, he was standing on the edge of the stone bridge once more as he had when they'd fought the first time, "We're finishing this. _Now_."

Jesse shook her head, the cold rain washing away the heated frustration from before, and shouted over the roaring wind, "Aiden, something's wrong! Think about it! How did we get from Soren's place to Sky City?! We don't have time to fight!"

But her arguments were lost on the bloodthirsty Blaze Rod in front of her, he kept his sword ready and exclaimed, "No way! I'm not letting this chance get away from me! It's _your_ turn to fall off, Jesse!"

"Aiden, come on!" Jesse argued, "You lied to the people of Sky City, you got us arrested, you nearly killed Lukas! You tried to kill me and Isa! You unleashed monsters everywhere and attacked innocent people! What was I supposed to do? Just let you run around and hurt people? I didn't have any other choice!"

Aiden shook his head fiercely, his brown hair becoming soaked from the rain, and clenched his teeth, "You idiot, of course I know I screwed up! Big time! But that's not the point!" He stood up straight and pointed his sword in an accusatory manner at her, "I gave up! I put my hands up and gave up! I even gave you the flint and steel back! But what did you do?"

"Put down the sword, Aiden!" Jesse shouted, feeling chills run down her spine as their final battle many months ago was returning to her. Needless to say, it hadn't ended well for Aiden.

"You walked away!" He roared, lime green eyes burning through her, "You just- just walked away, ignored me, left me there to die! _Then you let me fall!"_ His free hand gripped into a painful fist, "You call yourself a hero? I'm never getting home because of you!"

Jesse bit her lip, unable to talk back. She wasn't going to make up an excuse for what she'd done on this bridge. Her own words from that day were echoing in her head, reminding her of that moment of weakness…

 _"Leave him. He made his bed, he can lie in it!"_

Her own voice sounded like the most horrible noise in that moment. She didn't know how it happened, really, it wasn't like her at all. But she had just been so tired, so angry- Jesse slammed her eyes shut and shook her head, desperately trying to push it back. Now wasn't the time. She couldn't change what she'd done, and thinking about it wasn't going to help her figure out what was happening. Aiden was beyond reason at this point, there was only one thing she could do.

She rose her own sword, "I'm warning you, Aiden! I beat you once! I can easily do it again!"

"Big words!" Aiden laughed maniacally before charging ahead and swinging his sword, "Let's see you back them up!"

Jesse immediately deflected it with her own blade, their swords clashed against each other with sharp clangs. His fighting style was more aggressive, blowing hard hit after hard hit each time she deflected it. Yet it was much less sloppy than their previous battle, when he had been drunk on power. Aiden was much more focused, his eyes sharply kept themselves targeted on her. The glow from the sword's enchantment left a looming shadow on his eyes.

Jesse kept her stance, swinging her sword in careful slashes in an attempt to knock him off balance.

"You've got nothing to say, do you?" He lowly taunted, "There's nothing you _can_ say. Because if people found out what you're really like...well they'd never look at you the same way again."

She tried to ignore his words, their swords scraped against each other, small sparks flying off the blades.

A psychotic grin twitched at his face, "Man, what would Lukas think? _Another_ one of his heroes being nothing more than a pathetic liar!"

"Will you just," she growled, all of the stress and frustration that had been boiling in her blood now burst, she lifted her sword to deliver a sharp strike, "shut up?!"

But Aiden moved fast, taking full advantage of the opening and swung his sword at a part of her upper leg, managing to hit a spot not protected by the leg plates of her armor. The blade tore through the fabric, leaving a large wound. Jesse cried out, cringing as she struggled to stand, a red liquid began soaking through the fabric. Aiden then smacked her wrist in the confusion, knocking her sword from her hand and sending it over the edge where it disappeared into the dark sky. Jesse crumbled, keeping her hand over the wound and putting pressure on it. She grit her teeth and hissed from the pain.

"So much for the mighty Jesse," He said, a look of satisfaction plastered on his face, he shrugged his shoulders as he stared down at her, "I know you. You were always just a pain, an annoying kid who got lucky. And that's all you'll ever be. Face it Jesse, all you ever do is mess things up. But since I'm such a nice guy, I'll let you play hero."

She felt herself being grabbed roughly by the shoulder plates of her armor. He dragged her towards the edge and dangled her above the void below them. Jesse struggled and thrashed about, looking at his face with fearful eyes.

"Don't do this, Aiden!" She begged, the void only looked more and more far below her feet, "Please!"

"Start by dying like one!" He shouted as he released her, sending her falling downwards.

She screamed, the cobblestone bridge and the floating island grew smaller and smaller in her sight. Jesse tumbled through the air, the brisk cold feeling painful against her face, and her long black hair flying all over the place. She looked down as the ground waiting for her slowly came into view. _Calm down, calm down!_ She repeated to herself. Water, she just had to find water! There was water she could land in, she would be fine!

But below Jesse, there wasn't a single spot of blue. Her eyes quickly scanned anywhere she could see. No, no way, there had to be water! There had to be! Only tall trees and dark green grass could be seen from this height.

Jesse breathed heavily, the grim truth now fully sinking in. Her eyes softened, this was it, huh?

The atmosphere around her began to fade white, but Jesse didn't notice. She was already shutting her eyes, just waiting for the horrible, mercifully quick, pain that would soon follow her. Tiny tears of blue leaked from her eyes. Who would find her, she wondered? Or rather, what would be left of her? Her heart sank at the thought of her friends' reactions when they would hear of her death. What a sad way to go. But then again…

...She always seemed to fall whenever she failed.

* * *

The hot, heavy desert sun was normally something that burdened travelers wandering through the Mesa. But in his current state, he couldn't even feel his own feet against the sand. No heat would be bothering him for quite some time. He lowered his white eyes at the shadow-like, glitching mess that resembled his hand. The glitching seemed to be slowing down. Good. Looks like he'd chosen the right power source. If he'd had a mouth, he would've cracked a small grin at the unconscious girl behind him. His left arm was extended behind his back, his fingers releasing small glimmering dots of pink, green, red, and yellow lights. The lights had already been circling around the limp body of a black-haired, armored girl, levitating her above the ground and insuring that she was floating right behind him at all times. Her green eyes were dull and unfocused, covered by a dim white glow. He scanned her thoughts once more. Oh, right, Jesse, that was her name.

Capturing her had been a breeze, she had obviously been caught off guard by the explosion and the smoke. Heck, she'd practically walked right towards him. Then it was simply a matter of her looking straight at his eyes, which she'd done automatically and was out cold. The girl was supposed to merely be a quick recharge to prevent his physical form from completely destabilizing, at least until he had enough power to use his eye attack on Soren. But he'd never imagined what luck he'd stumbled upon when he read through her mind. Not only did she have enough fears to regain his strength, but she also knew the location of the person he was looking for. He didn't even need that annoying builder anymore. He'd almost been stopped when one of her companions, an old alchemist with a dumb beard, had stumbled upon him placing Jesse in the trance. Luckily the older man had hesitated throwing potions out of fear of hitting his friend, and the smoke provided enough cover for him to escape to the exit portal waiting outside. From there all it took was a glimpse into the girl's memory to figure out which portal the person he was looking for was hiding in.

"Don't...do this…" he heard her voice mutter softly. He stopped and glanced back again. Was she resisting? He knew his power was weakened, but he was sure that it would be enough to keep her from breaking out of the trance.

"Don't do this...Aiden…!" The ravenette hoarsely cried out. Her body trembled slightly, but remained suspended in the air. Ah. False alarm, it was simply part of the illusion he'd place her in. He was curious what other troubles lingered in her mind, perhaps when he was stronger he could dig deeper in her subconscious to find out. For now, however, he had more important things to attend to.

 **"Aw, poor kid, you don't look so good. But don't you worry…"**

He stared ahead as buildings constructed out of clay and spruce wood came into the dusty view ahead. A small wooden sign stood nearby.

 _Crown Mesa_

 _15 Miles North_

 **"We'll be seeing the doctor real soon."**

* * *

 **Author's Note: ...So uh. *clears throat* Yeah. This fic is rated T for a couple of reasons haha... OuO;; I'll uh...just be in the other room...hiding from the angry mobs...see ya! *runs for dear life***

 **Jokes aside, I actually had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Jesse may be one of my favorite characters, buuut I still gotta throw her into these situations (Sorry Jesse, it's the burden of being the main character). And that little segment at the end from the eyes of our antagonist was fun too, I LOVE writing for villains.**

 **Anyway, thanks again for reading and leaving feedback! It's always appreciated! Hope you enjoy, and I'll see you all next chapter!**


	6. The Eyes

Evening humbly settled in over the town of Crown Mesa. The sunset had already begun, splashing vibrant colors of red, gold, and pink across the sky over the desert. Most of the town's residents were retreating into their rebuilt homes for the day, wiping sweat off their foreheads from a hard day's work. Reconstruction of their home had been a challenge at first, even with Harper assisting the efforts. But their luck had begun turning around when one of the scavenger groups had found underground caverns filled to the brim with water. Harper theorized that PAMA had stored any water it couldn't eliminate far from the town. With streams of water now restored in the town, leaps of progress had been made, and crops were soon poking out of the ground. The people of Crown Mesa had even constructed a large fountain in the center of town, right in front of the spot where PAMA's screen used to tower above them.

All redstone wiring in PAMA's core was altered to power up their machines and lights. Tonight would be the night where they attempted to fix the lampposts spread out between the houses so that they lit up automatically once it was dark. Harper, Harry, and a few of the town's other engineers stood by the center fountain, anxiously waiting to see the results of their work today. Harper gave encouraging smiles to the others, but even she felt her hands fidgeting as they waited.

The redstone lamps began to flicker and Harper held her breath. She feared the familiar buzzing sound followed by the lamps shutting off that had marked their failed attempts for the past few days.

"Come on...come on…" Harper quietly urged, hoping luck would be kinder to her today. She crossed her fingers as the lights went back and forth between dim and bright, until finally all the lampposts lit up brightly with the sound of a _flick_. Soon, the whole town was lit up in every corner. Cheers from the engineers and other residents filled the air, as they began high-fiving or patting each other on the back at their success.

"Perfect, that'll keep the mobs away at least," Harry said as he turned to Harper. The scientist beamed, just seeing their satisfaction felt more rewarding than the lampposts working.

"No more dark nights," Harper agreed with a nod. The group began to disperse, most of them heading home to celebrate. Harry and Harper watched them all leave before turning to each other once again.

"So, what now?"

"Well, we got the lights working, but there's a lot of wiring we'll need to look over, gotta make sure nothing overheats," Harper explained before releasing a small yawn, "But for now, I think we've earned the rest of the night off. I'm heading home, grab something to eat and hit the hay."

"Sounds like a plan," He said while stretching his arms behind his head, "We'll check out the wiring first thing tomorrow, unless they go out in the middle of the night. See you in the morning, Harper."

With that, he turned and headed in the direction of his home. Harper waved goodbye before doing the same, making her way to the edge of the town where she had constructed her new house. Her new home was a decently sized two-story house made from clay blocks dyed with red and orange and a jungle wood roof. She had moved most of her equipment from her old lab to a new location in town, so her home was mainly just for living, though she did leave notes and small inventions about. It was the farthest building from the other homes of Crown Mesa, which she knew was for the best. After being alone for so long, the idea of a town full of people right next door was intimidating, and she was well aware of the lingering resentment towards her. She didn't blame them, but that didn't stop her from wincing whenever she spotted a dirty glare pointed in her direction. Even Harry, who had been her right-hand-man for much of the Post-PAMA construction, still couldn't hold long conversations with her that didn't involve their work without it turning awkward.

Time, she reminded herself on a daily basis, they all just needed time.

* * *

Her dinner was made up of a small bowl of soup, a glass of milk, and a loaf of bread, both made from the latest harvest of their growing crop field. Harper would savor every bite of the bread, oh gosh, she had missed bread during her lonely days in hiding. Back then, her meals consisted solely of beetroot, as they had been the only seeds she managed to salvage before fleeing the PAMA-invaded Crown Mesa, and small portions of water. Tasted awful, but it had kept her alive for so long. Every bite in the bread was a warm, blissful taste on her tongue, and the milk felt like a cool stream trickling down her throat.

As Harper cleaned up the bowl from her soup, she couldn't help but glance over her shoulder at a clock resting above the front door. The picture of the full moon had dialed into the center, matching the starry sky outside her window. She frowned, normally on the first day of the week, she could expect a visitor from the Portal Hallway. Most times it was Ivor. He was a strange, silly man with clear volume control issues but he wasn't bad company. When the alchemist wasn't asking her question after question, he would do small tasks for her while she worked, such as bring her a small snack or tidy up her home a bit. Harper attempted to ask him questions about his own world once in awhile, but for unknown reasons, he'd never give her detailed answers. More times than not if Jesse was tagging along she'd answer for him. Although the one thing he _would_ share about his world were flowers that grew near his home, claiming they would make good "specimen" for her work, seeing how they were a rare sight in the desert, especially after PAMA dried up most of the water. She could still remember those words PAMA had spoken to her when her favorite potted daisy had wilted...

 _"Flowers are beautiful, but what purpose do they serve, creator? Cacti hold water, those crops provide you and your friends with nutrients, but flowers do not serve any practical use. They are not useful."_

The mechanical voice in her memory made her chest feel tight. But the pain was softened when she looked over to a windowsill where she'd place all the flowers from Ivor's many visits in pots, there were poppies, daisies, tulips, wisteria, allium, blue orchids, and even dandelions.

 _"Most people see dandelions as weeds, but I've found that they make charming decorations," Ivor explained as he handed the small yellow flower to her, "Just don't plant them anywhere near the crops."_

Harper smiled to herself, the fond memory settling cozily in her head. She was a little disappointed he hadn't come today. Guess it can't be helped, she told herself, he was probably off on one of his "ADVENTURES!" anyway.

She had also grown fond of the company of Olivia over the past few months. They'd met when Harper had freed her and her friend Axel from obsidian prisons, but didn't speak much to each other until Jesse had formally introduced the two of them sometime after the end of their journey together. Like Ivor, she asked Harper a great amount of questions, although her questions were more related to the redstone work, but as her visits became more frequent, it grew into the two redstone engineers trading and discussing tricks and secrets. Despite being way younger, Olivia was a redstone prodigy, the girl could build an arrow launcher machine in mere minutes! That alone was impressive enough, but every visit she would amaze Harper more.

Beyond the redstone however, there were visits where Olivia confided in Harper. She'd talk about her doubts, the pressure of being a role model for other redstone enthusiasts, worries of keeping her friends safe during their treasure hunts, the list went on. Harper admitted to herself, she saw a lot of her own younger years in Olivia, and it was for that reason that she tried to give her advice to the best of her ability. But some days, Harper couldn't help but feel she wasn't the best person for Olivia to seek advice from…

 _Clink!_

Harper blinked, her hands felt empty all of a sudden. She lowered her eyes before realizing the bowl she'd been cleaning had slipped from her fingers while she was lost in her thoughts. It sunk to the bottom of the soapy water that filled the cauldron. Her sore shoulders and a yawn that escaped from her mouth convinced her to just let the bowl soak for the night.

She began making her way towards the red sandstone staircase that led to her bedroom on the second floor, shaking her hands slightly to dry the water droplets off. The sensation of crawling and snuggling into the covers of her soft bed was calling to her, until a familiar buzzing sound alerted her. Along with the sound, her home had become darker for just a split moment. Harper looked up, and to her dismay, the redstone lamps installed into her ceiling were flickering.

Of course. Just when she thought she could actually get to sleep early tonight too…

Harper released a sigh, rolling her gloves up back on her hands and re-adjusting the goggles on her head that she had been ready to take off, she headed towards the light wooden front door of her home. Opening the door partly, Harper started to step out into the dusty night when she was met with the sight of a fully lit up Crown Mesa without a single lamp flickering. Her eyes went back and forth between the town and the blinking lights of her house. Harper rose an eyebrow as she slowly retreated back into her house.

"Guess it's just something wrong with _my_ wiring?" Harper muttered aloud as she started for small hatch that led to the redstone wiring underneath her home.

Just as she was about to lift the trapdoor, however, a series of muffled noises paraded into her ears. There were thuds—almost sounding like someone was hitting a hard object against the walls—along with an eerie creaking, resembling light footsteps. All the while, the lamps were only blinking more. The house would go dark for a more noticeable period of time before the lights flicked back on. Okay, not normal. Harper stood up, examining her surroundings.

"Someone there?" She called out into the dark, empty space of the building. The only response she got back was an even louder thud, this time sounding like it was coming from her front door. Harper felt her body become tense, limbs feeling tight. She took a few slow breaths to calm herself down, reminding herself to think rationally. She and the townspeople were the only people out here, the only real threat now would be mobs. Even then, the mobs were back to being their not-as-bright selves with PAMA's influence gone, taking down a stray zombie or spider would be no sweat.

On the other hand, a stray monster wasn't an explanation for what was messing with her lights. Harper then recalled a prank pulled by Margaret, who was quite the jokester back in their younger days, where she would re-wire the redstone circuits of someone's home to create a false blackout before following it with a variety of spooky noises to get a jump out of them. Maybe she was getting back into her old habits.

"Margaret, I swear if you're behind this," Harper sighed, shaking her head as she went back to the front door and opened it, "it's not fun-,"

She stopped in her tracks. There, collapsed on the sandy ground just a few inches from the house, was an unconscious girl clad in blue armor with long black hair. A face Harper knew too well.

"Jesse?" Harper gasped, the sight catching her off guard. She rushed to the girl's side. Placing a hand on her shoulder, Harper shook her slightly as she said, "Jesse? Jesse, can you hear me?!"

When Jesse only responded with a small groan and a pained expression, Harper began examining her. No visible injuries, okay, good sign so far. She rose her head for a moment, getting a view of the area around them for any trace of a monster that might've attacked her. The coast seemed clear, allowing Harper to return her attention to Jesse.

"Okay, okay," Harper said to calm her own panicking nerves. She took another deep breath before heaving Jesse onto her back, wrapping the girl's arms around her shoulders to prevent her from slipping off, "Questions later, just hang in there, Jess."

Despite her old age, Harper was no slouch when it came to lifting heavy weight, allowing her to carry Jesse back inside her home, stopping at a couch settled by a bookshelf and carefully allowing her to slide off Harper's back to rest on the couch. As she stood up straight, she realized that the mysterious blinking lights from before had ceased. Weird, but Harper had bigger issues right now.

With no possible injuries or any other signs of a sickness, figuring out what happened to Jesse would be tricky. One logical explanation would be dehydration, something that was a common issue in a mesa biome. Locals were experienced enough to keep themselves hydrated at all times, but someone used to forests and waterfalls probably wouldn't. Yet even _that_ explanation seemed like a stretch for Jesse. She came here far too often to be oblivious to how hot it could get, and the spot where the Portal Network spit out people wasn't too far of a walk from town. Still, it would probably be a good idea to get some water in her.

Harper returned to the kitchenette nearby, taking a cup and scooping fresh, clean water into it. As she did this, she continued narrowing down the possible causes. The only other logical possibility would be exhaustion. It seemed much more plausible, going on what Olivia told her, Jesse was known to push herself to her limits. Which, while practially being the factor that saved them all during the battles with PAMA and Hadrian, was a large concern for her friends. That may also have explained why she found her so late at night. Maybe Jesse had gotten caught up by fighting some monsters and was on the verge of collapsing by the time she reached town. At least, this would be the theory Harper would go by until she got some answers from the girl.

Speaking of whom, Harper turned and made her way back over to Jesse only to see the girl slowly awakening.

Before the scientist could even let out a sigh of relief, Jesse suddenly sat up with a sharp gasp, panic evident in her expression. She began panting heavily, clutching a hand to her chest as if she'd just awaken from a horrible dream. Harper rushed back over to her, setting the cup of water side on a nearby table and placing a hand on Jesse's shoulder.

"Easy, easy, _breathe_ ," Harper told her in a soothing tone, "You're safe."

Sure enough, the ravenette's breathing slowed as she caught her breath. She looked towards Harper, green eyes wide with confusion and beads of sweat resting on her forehead.

"Har...per?" Jesse croaked out in a hoarse voice. She blinked a few times, adjusting her eyes to the light, "H-How did I get here?"

Harper frowned, "You tell me. I found you outside the house, out cold."

The girl's head tilted to the side, stumbling over her words as she tried to make sense of where she was, "But how's that possible? I was with Olivia and Ivor, but there was this explosion- I got lost. And then I fell and I thought-," Jesse stopped, clamping a hand on her forehead and wincing.

"Jesse?"

She shook her head, her voice straining, "Sorry, I'm okay, it's just my head. Ugh, feels like it's full of rocks..."

"Take it easy. I'm not really sure what's going on, but you're not exactly in the best shape. Just rest for a sec, alright?" Harper calmly told her, handing Jesse the cup of water.

"Thanks," Jesse breathed before gulping down every drop the water. She wiped her lips with her hand and placed the cup back on the table.

A few minutes past, Jesse using them to catch her breath after that jolting wake up. Harper took the time to catch a few glances out her window, double checking for anything out of the ordinary. She couldn't pinpoint why exactly, but something in her gut was ordering her to be on the lookout. All seemed peaceful outside once again. Now was the time for answers.

Harper took a seat on a nearby wooden stool, scooting it closer so that she was right next to Jesse. She started simple, "So let me see if I'm getting this right; you don't know how you got out here?"

Jesse nodded, "Not a clue. Olivia, Ivor, and I didn't even come through the portal. I mean, we were _going_ to come here, but we got a little...sidetracked."

"Care to elaborate, Jess?"

"It's kind of a long story, but in a nutshell, we ran into this guy who's been missing for a while in the portal hall. He set up camp in some weird mushroom island world, and then..." She trailed off, holding her head and groaning from another headache. "It's kinda fuzzy, but I remember an explosion. And something attacking me. Then...I was wandering around, looking for my friends. I couldn't find them...but I did find Elle-,"

Jesse stopped, her breath shook slightly, and she continued, "Someone who...wasn't happy to see me. I left her alone and that's when I ran into Aiden."

"Aiden," Harper repeated, "that guy who used to pick on you all? Olivia mentioned him a few times."

"Yep, that guy. Needless to say he wasn't all too thrilled to see me either," Jesse rotated herself on the couch so that she could make eye contact without having to turn her head, "We fought, he threw me off something high up. I don't remember what exactly, but the last thing I _do_ remember is...falling. Then suddenly I'm here with you."

"That _is_ strange," Harper muttered, tapping her chin. "That's all you can remember, huh? Nothing about coming through town or the portal?"

Jesse folded her arms, "Nothing. Where did you say you found me again?"

"Outside the house, you were lying right by the steps."

"But-,"

Jesse was cut off when the lights of Harper's home began to flicker once more. She glanced up, watching the redstone lamps blink before snapping back on.

"What's up with your lights?" Jesse questioned.

Harper shook her head and let a out frustrated sigh, "Oh who knows, they've been acting up all night. It's probably just something mixed up in the wiring. Anyway, you were saying?"

"Well, either I'm the most terrible sleepwalker," Jesse began, a concerned look forming on her face, "or someone put me there."

Harper didn't respond. The likely suspects of who would drop Jesse out in front of her house were plenty, but each one wouldn't add up. That Aiden kid? Prison. PAMA? Deactivated and taken apart. Hadrian and Mevia? Giant chicken world. Unless Jesse had managed to make herself another enemy, she couldn't name anyone who would drag her here.

"But who would do that?" Harper began.

 **"Who indeed?"**

A gargled, scrambled voice broke out into the room, alarming Jesse and Harper to a new looming presence just a few feet away from them. It was in the shape of human silhouette, except completely black like a shadow, with two blank, glowing white eyes staring straight at them. Harper let out a short scream before gripping the goggles on her head and yanking them down over her eyes. Jesse stared in disbelief, before her pupils shrunk as a memory resurfaced.

"It's that thing, that's what attacked me after the explosion!" Jesse exclaimed, practically springing off the couch and grabbing her sword.

 **"Hey kid, I don't appreciate being referred to as a 'thing', thanks."** The being lectured in a patronizing tone. **"Sheesh, didn't even ask me my name. You're rude."**

Harper shot her heads toward Jesse and yelled, "Jesse! Keep your head down!"

The ravenette returned with a puzzled look, "Wait what? Why?"

"Just listen to me okay?! Whatever you do, _don't_ look into his eyes!"

Before Jesse could open her mouth, a synchronized chuckle escaped from the being. Despite not having a mouth, it almost seemed like he was smiling. He cocked his head to the side.

 **"Oh Harper, I'm afraid it's too late,"** he suddenly lifted the glitching mess that looked like his hand and clicked his fingers together to produce a _snap_. **"She already did."**

Without warning, as the sound echoed, Jesse's entire body went limp as she sharply gasped and fell to the floor. Her sword clanked on the wooden floor as it fell from her hand. Harper watched in horror as the girl's green eyes were covered by a dim white glow, becoming blank and unfocused. This was even worse than Harper could've predicted.

"Jesse!" Harper cried out as she attempted to reach out to pull her to safety. But her attempt failed, multicolored pinpricks of light surrounded Jesse and an insivible force yanked her away from Harper. Jesse was lifted up into the air next to the being, her arms dangled at her sides and head slumped like a rag doll. The being had one arm raised to keep the girl suspended in the air. The other was placed on the being's hip, returning his attention to Harper.

 **"So you both _do_ know each other. That's handy."**

Harper began reaching for inventory, hoping to grab a diamond pickaxe she had forgotten to put away earlier.

The being's hand gripped into a fist, lifting Jesse higher above the floor, **"Ah, ah, ah! I see you. If you don't want Jesse here to get a couple new scars, then I suggest cooperating."**

With that threat now in the air, Harper begrudgingly lowered her arm, keeping a hard glare on the being. The glitch-like twitching that ran throughout his body turned her stomach.

She shook her head, "What...what _happened_ to you?"

 **"You know it's a funny thing, when you're crammed into a reactor core for a long time, it tends to have some side effects."** His voice strained out, **"Such as** **your physical form _slowly_ _and_ _painfully_ _being chipped away_. Hell, if it wasn't for the kid here providing me plenty of fear to snack on during the trip here, I probably would've dissolved the moment I stepped out of that block."**

Harper grimaced, as if she didn't have enough weights on her already guilty conscience.

 **"Oh stop, relax. I got numb to the actual pain a long time ago. Didn't make it any less miserable, but that's life for you, you take what you can get."**

"How did you get here?" She asked, her voice low.

 **"If you mean out of the reactor core, that's a story for another day,"** He replied, **"As for how I got to this cute little town? You can once again thank my new pal next to me. A quick stroll in her head let me know exactly which portal you were hiding in. And then it was just a cakewalk dumping her outside to get your guard down."**

The being looked upwards at his hostage levitating in the air, **"Guess I owe the kid a lot, huh? I'll put her on my I.O.U. list. But enough about me, let's talk about you!"** He rose his free hand and rubbed what was probably his chin, **"Look at you, doc. You got _old_."**

"Old?" Harper huffed, glaring once more, "Excuse you, we're the same age."

 **"Huh, guess we are. But while we're on the topic, I want your opinion on something that's been on my mind for a while."** His voice suddenly grew deeper and more hostile, **"When you tell someone, 'I'll be back soon!' isn't it just even a teensy wee bit inconsiderate to make them wait thirty years for you to fufill that promise?"**

The older woman's eyes became focused on the floor as she frowned.

"Listen," Harper began, her voice shaking, "I didn't want things to happen that way. I really didn't. I thought...going somewhere new would give me more time to find a way to help you. But, I made even bigger messes I had to fix-,"

 **"Shocker."**

Harper shot him a look at the interruption before continuing, "You're mad at me. And I get it, okay? But leave Jesse out of this. She's not involved in any way. Just put her down, and we can talk about this."

 **"Ooh, sorry Harper. But I can't do that. See, I didn't come here for a friendly chat. I want something you have, and you're going to give it to me unless you don't care what happens to your friend. Now be a dear and fetch the Redstone Heart for me."**

Harper's eyes widened. She shook her head, "I don't have it."

 **"Liar."**

"I'm telling the truth! And even if I did have it, you don't need to resort to this!" Harper's expression saddened, eyes full of regret, "You're better than this. I know you-,"

The being rushed forward faster than Harper could blink. He lunged forward, stopping his face mere inches away from the scientist's. The white glow of his eyes reflected on the glass of the goggles covering her own eyes.

He hissed, **"Don't you dare. You were about to call me that name, weren't you?!"**

Harper backed up, at a loss for words.

 **"That guy is gone. Thanks to you and the rest of those cruddy Old Builders! I go by a new name now."**

He regained his composure before letting out another deep chuckle.

 **"It's Herobrine."**

* * *

He didn't care if he didn't know what would be awaiting him when he burst into her house. He didn't care if he didn't know how long it would take for Olivia to rejoin him with the the others. He didn't care that the residents of the small mesa town were calling out to him, wondering what he was doing and why he seemed to be in a hurry.

The Atlas said they'd come here, through _this_ portal. That's all he needed to know.

With a throwing potion at hand, Ivor continued his charge through Crown Mesa to a familiar house in the distance. He pushed his thoughts of throttling Soren for when he found him again aside. That didn't matter right now.

All that mattered to the alchemist, was that some monster had kidnapped his friend, and was heading straight towards another one. He wasn't going to allow that.

* * *

 **Greetings readers! First things first, sorry for the longer wait! My schedule's been flipped around and full lately, so I haven't been able to squeeze in writing time as much as I would like. But I do aim to at least keep my routine of updating once a month, maybe twice if I'm lucky. (That's also why this chapter's a bit on the shorter side. Next chapter's definitely gonna be longer.) Once again I appreciate your patience with me! And thank you for the support!**

 **Anyway, YEP. Herobrine's in this story! (And yeah, most people already caught on to it back in chapter four so not _too_ big of a surprise, but eh *shrugs*) Although I will say that he's not exactly the same Herobrine from the original creepypasta. I've made a couple of tweaks to his backstory to fit in a bit better to the MCSM world rules, buuuut saying what those are would be spoilers. All I can say is stay tuned!**

 **That's about everything I believe, as always, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! See you next time!**

 **(P.S. To answer your question from last chapter,** **JasmineShade113, I believe Aiden said something more along the lines of "Just DIE already!" before they fought in the throne room back in episode 5, but good eye on pointing out the role reversal! That was sort of the aim I was going for and I'm glad people noticed! Thank you for the kind words!)**


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